See You Then

Two ex-lovers meet up for an evening of increasingly intimate and vulnerable revelations in See You Then. Kris left Naomi abruptly without an explanation, only for Naomi to hear about her transition through a mutual friend. A decade after their relationship ended, the two have a lot to catch up on. Over the course of a night they wander through the landscape of their old life, the ghosts of their past in close step. As memories surface, shared jokes and casual familiarities appear alongside old wounds and simmering resentments.

Director Mari Walker (who co-wrote the script) threads tension throughout the film, tightening the line as the deeper unresolved conflict and pain builds towards an inevitable eruption. Kris and Naomi’s conversations about womanhood, femininity and misogyny are complex and come from Walker’s personal experiences as a trans woman. The result is a nuanced journey for her protagonists as they navigate cultural expectations, interpersonal relationships and personal disappointments on a path to forgiveness. There is palpable chemistry between Lynn Chen as Naomi and Pooya Mohseni as Kris, who both dive completely into character, and honestly portray these woman as the brilliant, loving, frustrated, contradictory people they are.

See You Then is a cinematic exercise in compassion and empathy, for oneself as much as others. In confronting each other, Kris and Naomi also face themselves, contending with their own darkness and their dreams for freedom and fulfillment. The result is a painfully honest and beautifully vulnerable depiction of a complicated relationship between two complex women.

Content Advisory: Conversations about transphobia