Based on her son’s experience with a rare genetic disorder, author Anna Todd brought her novel The Last Sunrise to Prime Video as a romance film starring Maia Reficco, Fernando Lindez, and Eva Longoria. The feature aims to break traditional “sick-lit” tropes by pairing chronic illness with a hopeful ending.
For lovers of steamy romance dramas, streaming platforms have lately become a non-stop delivery system for escapist fiction. But when Anna Todd set out to adapt her novel The Last Sunrise, she deliberately rejected the tragic trajectory that usually accompanies health-focused narratives. Instead of a tearjerker that leaves audiences reaching for tissues, Todd envisioned a sun-drenched summer romance where a chronic condition coexists with genuine happiness.
Personal Parallels and Tuberous Sclerosis on Screen
The emotional core of the film stems from an intimate place for its author. In The Last Sunrise, protagonist Oriah “Ry” Pera is a 22-year-old dancer who deals with epilepsy and tuberous sclerosis, a rare genetic disorder that causes noncancerous tumors to grow in various parts of the body such as the brain, kidneys, heart, or lungs. Todd’s own son lives with the same condition, alongside autism and epilepsy.
That lived reality meant writing the book carried a heavy psychological toll, but it also fueled Todd’s determination to challenge cinematic conventions. While acknowledging the cultural footprint of classic tearjerkers like The Fault in Our Stars, Todd noted that she wanted to move away from stories that routinely end in heartbreak and sadness.
“My son might not ever be at a place where he can date or fall in love, but there are so many people that are living life to the max as much as they can. We’re not seeing it in media. I’m not reading it in these romance novels. It’s always a sad ending. So I wanted to represent that there is hope and there are people falling in love despite having chronic illness.”
Anna Todd, Author
Mallorca Settings and the Adaptation Journey
The story follows Ry as she joins her mother, Isolde, on a summer business trip to the Spanish island of Mallorca, where Isolde is working to close a deal to open a new resort. Upon arrival, Ry unexpectedly falls for a charming local fisherman named Julián. The romantic escape is complicated by Ry’s health crossroads: after suffering a seizure on stage, she must choose between increasing her medication dosage—which numbs her feelings—or undergoing surgery that risks her memory. She initially opts for the pills, but quickly dispenses with treatment to feel every second of her summer fling.
Behind the scenes, the project took a unique route. Todd reverse-engineered the film adaptation, writing the novel while the script was actively being developed. Produced by Ethea Entertainment, Luber Roklin Entertainment, and Pitt Street, the feature is directed by Carlson Young and supervised by screenwriter Anna Klassen.
Casting Choices and Dynamic Relationships
As an executive producer, Todd took intense pride in assembling the cast, relying on immediate gut instincts to secure Maia Reficco as Ry, Fernando Lindez as Julián, and Eva Longoria as Isolde. That casting created a layered dynamic on screen, particularly in the mother-daughter relationship between Ry and Isolde.
Reficco praised the off-screen mentorship and advice she received from Longoria while navigating personal challenges during production. Meanwhile, Lindez described his character Julián as a man who appears confident and in control on the surface, but harbors a very soft and vulnerable heart beneath.
Streaming Release and Critical Reception
Distributed via Prime Video, The Last Sunrise arrives as the latest entry in Amazon’s expanding catalog of romance adaptations. The streamer has enjoyed high returns on similar soapy, sun-soaked content in recent years.
At the same time, reviews have highlighted the tension between the film’s heavy subject matter and its polished, streaming-romance aesthetics. One review noted that while the narrative incorporates high-stakes elements—including family business disputes over fishing docks and financial pressures—certain plot dynamics remain largely descriptive rather than fully dramatized on screen. Nonetheless, the production marks another major screen translation for Todd, whose previous literary phenomenon, the After series, was adapted into five feature films between 2019 and 2023.
