Nino
A young French man faces a course of chemotherapy in Pauline Loquès’s compelling feature debut.
Théodore Pellerin
Image courtesy of Curzon Film Distributors.
by MANSEL STIMPSON
Directed by Pauline Loquès and written by her with Maud Ameline, Nino is a prize-winning French film which is undoubtedly a memorable debut. It is also a work which consolidates the standing of Théodore Pellerin, its lead actor. A French-Canadian, he made early appearances back in 2020 in Never Rarely Sometimes Always and Underground and then moved on to starring roles in Solo (2023) and Lurker (2025). Pellerin appears here in the titular role and gives a remarkable performance, one that is notable for the manner in which he inhabits his role in the most natural and unforced way imaginable. He is playing Nino Clavel who, just as he is reaching his twenty-ninth birthday, learns out of the blue that he has little time left to live and will die of cancer. He had gone for a checkup due to experiencing a sore throat when swallowing but without any expectation whatever of the diagnosis that he would receive. It is all the more devastating because he hears it from a staff member who is under the impression that his doctor has already broken the news to him and is therefore less cautious in how she leads up to it.
Nino is a film which, like Agnès Varda’s Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) and Louise Malle’s Le feu follet (1963), takes place over a short period – in this case from a Friday to the following Monday. The tone of the piece brings to mind the sense of absolute reality which was a notable feature of 2025's most haunting film, Souleymane’s Story. What makes it so affecting is the fact that it stands as a totally believable portrait of someone whom the audience can readily view as representative of anyone unexpectedly faced by a diagnosis of this kind. That makes it all the easier for us to identify with Nino. Although Pellerin’s skills bring him fully to life as an individual whose particular story is being told, the film is all the more compelling due to it being depicted in a manner which speaks for all in this situation. Each and every viewer can ask what they themselves would do were they to find themselves in Nino's shoes.
A further strength of Nino lies in the fact that the film totally avoids any sense of the maudlin and never indulges self-pity. The focus is on Nino coming to terms with the news and, as we see him wandering around Paris and encountering people he knows, we understand how he has to face the question of whether to speak out or to say nothing. Will speaking words that express his situation come as a relief to him or would that instead be an acknowledgment that makes his fate feel even more real and unbearable? The weekend provides opportunities to confide in his mother (Jeanne Balibar), his best friend Sofian (William Lebghil) and Sofian’s sister, Lina (Estelle Meyer) with whom he has a close rapport. Other friends too such as Mounir (Mounir Belhidaoui) and Raphaël (Alexandre Desrousseaux) are present at a surprise party where he should be celebrating his birthday, but will he speak out to any of them? He might, of course, have chosen to tell Camilla (Camilla Rutherford) who is his ex-girlfriend, but she is leaving Paris and that makes it less appropriate. What does eventually happen in this respect is unexpected but absolutely convincing.
One incident that occurs during this same period is a chance encounter on the Saturday with a young woman Nino had not seen for some years. This is Zoé (Salomé Dewaels) who had been at school with him and who now has a young son (Balthazar Billaud). They arrange to meet again on the Sunday to chat about old times, but when they do so his mind is inevitably fixed on the fact that the urgency of his condition is such that on the Monday he has an appointment to begin chemotherapy. Ahead of seeing Zoé as arranged, Nino visits a Turkish bathhouse where he gets talking to a friendly stranger (a cameo role for Mathieu Amalric). Much of what happens over the weekend is in fact the stuff of everyday life, incidentals thrown into relief by the way in which Nino's expectations for the future have been utterly overturned. This might suggest that to make this work as the basis of a feature film one would need to incorporate fresh developments to sustain the drama. But in point of fact – and very much in the same way that Varda and Malle handled things in the films I have cited – Nino is so realistically portrayed and so compellingly played that it rivets our attention without any further elaboration being necessary.
The film’s opening scene, the one in which Nino learns of his fate, is presented as an introductory episode ahead of any credit titles appearing. The realistic detail incorporated does include Nino being advised that the treatment could well render him infertile so that if he wants to have children he should quickly produce sperm that can be frozen. At the time this seems a minor matter but, as the piece proceeds, we discover that Nino does indeed want to have a child and this possibility comes to play a central role in the second half of the film. It could well be that many viewers will welcome this as a means of adding to the drama. My own reaction was rather different however. These later scenes are, of course, well-handled as you would expect from what has preceded them. Nevertheless, I felt that a major change had taken place in the nature of the piece. What had initially been a work of general application (one built around how one might respond to news of one’s own impending death without that being in any way restricted by the fact that in this instance it is happening earlier in life than usual) had turned into a more limited and particular portrayal through becoming largely centred on a dying man’s desire to achieve fatherhood.
It could be that my view here is a minority one and in any case Nino is a film to see. Loquès has given us a work which leaves one keen to discover what she will do in the future, while Pellerin’s performance is one that brings him to the fore among actors of his generation. And, as if that were not enough, there is the fact that Nino joins the long list of films which have the bonus of playing out against the background of Paris, that most atmospheric of cities.
Cast: Théodore Pellerin, Salomé Dewaels, William Lebghil, Jeanne Balibar, Camille Rutherford, Estelle Meyer, Alexandre Desrousseaux, Balthazar Billaud, Mounir Belhidaoui, Mathieu Amalric.
Dir Pauline Loquès, Pro Sandra da Fonseca, Screenplay Pauline Loquès with Maud Ameline, Ph Lucie Baudinaud, Art Dir Aurette Leroy, Ed Clémence Diard, Costumes Jenn Pocobene and Martin Barré.
Blue Monday Productions/France 2 Cinéma/Ciné+OCS/Disney+/France Télélvisions/Cinemage 19- Curzon Film Distributors.
97 mins. France/USA. 2025. UK Rel: 19 June 2026. Cert. 15.
