Throughout this article, we carry out an interdisciplinary analysis of Aftersun (Charlote Wells, 2022), a cinematographic work with a special aesthetic and thematic relevance, insofar it poses the damaging effects of models of masculinity and fatherhood on men. On one hand, it reveals how those effects arise because of the self-demands of codes, roles, stereotypes, and beliefs rooted in the social and cultural imaginary. On the other hand, it warns against self-violence as an unconscious answer in the face of the pressure of obligations and commands of the traditional paradigm, which are impossible to perform. Wells’ feature film addresses issues that have rarely been acknowledged in cinema until now. It achieves its goals by means of a particular narrative structure where temporal anachronies and memory play an essential role in conveying to what extent those models can be inherited by ignoring the causes that lead the male gender to a tragic destiny. Consequently, narratological theory allows us to isolate the main narrative phenomena of the film and to also elucidate its discourse with the help of a gender studies approach. © 2024 Universidad de Malaga, Departamento de Historia del Arte. All rights reserved.