It follows a young, quietly ambitious film student who embarks on her first serious love affair with a charismatic and mysterious man.

Julie becomes upset, but Anthony manages to convince her he had a good reason for doing so even though he doesn't elaborate, insinuating it is related to work and not to his heroin habit.

[4][5] Focus Features acquired distribution rights for the world excluding North America, the United Kingdom and Taiwan.

The website's consensus reads: "Made by a filmmaker in command of her craft and a star perfectly matched with the material, The Souvenir is a uniquely impactful coming of age drama.

"[12] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 92 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

[13] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 5 out of 5 stars and remarked, "The Souvenir is an artefact in the highest auteur register.

"[14] Mark Kermode of The Observer gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and stated, "Hogg turns the blade on herself, performing what seems at times to be a delicate act of on-screen auto-vivisection.

"[15] Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times opined, "If The Souvenir seems to move assuredly to its own unconventional rhythms, it's because Hogg isn't telling a straightforward story; she's showing us, piecemeal, how an artist's sensibility comes into being.

"[17] Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and commented, "Hogg's coming-of-age tale is no misty remembrance of bygone days.

"[18] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "an illuminating (self-)portrait of a young artist as well as a mesmerizing chronicle of a consuming, destructive relationship that steadily inches its way under the viewer's skin.

"[19] Guy Lodge of Variety stated, "Hogg takes a little of both positions in her rich, exquisitely reflective fourth feature — a work of memoir shattered and reassembled into a universally moving, truthful fiction."

"[20] Tomris Laffly of TheWrap wrote, "The Souvenir isn't exactly autobiographical, but it shares a DNA with the filmmaker's own past as a film student.

It is a precise yet dreamy memory piece, in an opposite but equally masterful manner to Alfonso Cuarón's Roma, also a cinematic reenactment of recollections.