The tail end of the film "Best of Youth" was filled with many instances of symbolism and imagery in order to convey the inner state of mind of the cast of characters that were left at the end of the film. The first instance of symbolism is with the island that everyone moved to at the end of the film. I feel that the island represents the characters coming to terms with Matteo's death. This is shown when Nicola and Andrea go to the graveyard and Nicola talks about Matteo in a casual way to Andrea. Before they got to the island Nicola couldn't even talk about Matteo without breaking out into tears. I feel like the location was symbolic in that way because the characters seem to have moved on from Matteo's death because of their attitude when they talk about him and their body language/facial expressions.
The next instance of symbolism was the characters moving to the countryside of the island at the end. At this point in the film, Andrea is much older and is about to go off to a trip to Norway, which is a really neat parallel to the start of the film when Nicola went. This area represents the next generation, as Sara gets married and is about to have a baby. The parallel with Andrea going to Norway combined with this shows to me that the countryside of the island represents the next generation being born. The countryside can also represent the older generation achieving their final goals. You have the literal example of Nicola's friend finishing the house there and everyone there seems to be at the end of their journey and is going to live the rest of their lives in peace.
Overall, the symbolism in this part of the film is very present and is shown through locations, which is very different from most films. Most films would rather use objects or characters to convey themes to the viewers. Several locations that I didn't mention are also ways to call back on earlier parts of the film or symbolize something else. Usually, they symbolize some sort of movement in that person's life whether it be internally, literally, or both.
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