Yesterday Island Review [MIFF 2026]

The question is raised: if you were in a situation like this, which arch-nemesis in your phone contacts would you call?

What might come off as a simple new take on the Groundhog Day formula at first becomes a much deeper and darkly funny spin on the repeating day idea in Yesterday Island.

Amos (Ivan Aristeguieta) gets a call late one night from a friend he hasn’t seen in a long time, asking a simple request. Cover his shift on King Island — the titular Yesterday Island in this film —and he’ll be back the next day. It’s all odd from the arrival, though. And of course, as the dull day comes to an end and then morning rolls around, Amos is just looking to get through to the end and see himself get back on board the boat that sent him here. He’s doing a favour to make up for something he did in his past. But when no boat arrives, and small things all begin to play out the same the following morning, Amos goes from thinking it’s all a joke to wondering just how and what the loop he’s stuck in is all about.

The thing that instantly separates Yesterday Island, outside of its peculiar tone and dark sense of humour, which I’ll get to in a moment, is that Amos actually discovers some ‘rules’ about the scenario he’s stuck in. Behind a frame in the small coastal container he’s staying in are instructions more or less laying it out. You can only get off the island if you get someone else there, and you jump on the boat headed back to Hobart instead of them. And thus the question is raised: if you were in a situation like this, which arch-nemesis in your phone contacts would you call?

What makes the whole predicament even weirder for Amos to deal with is that, in the following days, he decided to spend time with the others living near him in similar homes. The same board game every day. The same quips. The same small talk. And then it all ends with the same unexplained violence. Does Amos care to seek answers to this situation? Nope. He’s just focused on himself. That’s one of the bigger questions and topics about Yesterday Island.

Amos does pick someone to call to the island. However, things don’t go as planned, and the whole situation gets messier with each new scene, culminating in a fantastic final ten minutes that will leave you either with questions or, like me, appreciating the odd brilliance of it all.

Amongst the small cast and the committed performances in this strange scenario is what makes it so consistently odd and funny. You can’t explain why a joke about being from Geelong is so funny to someone not from Australia, but the deadpan delivery here is spot on.

All the outdoor scenes filmed at Kings Island are beautiful as well, and I’m always one to shout out any film set in or adjacent to Tasmania.

(Screener provided to Explosion Network.
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