Nino

Bluesky

Nino (Théodore Pellerin) is preparing to celebrate his 29th birthday when he is confronted with an unexpected birthday surprise – throat cancer. Now, there are two things he must do three days before chemotherapy: find someone to accompany him on the first day of the treatment and give sperm samples to be frozen so he can have children in the future.

Confused by the news, Nino realises he has been locked out of his own home because, as usual, he has lost his keys. As a result, he stays with different people for three days and begins to drift through the streets of Paris.

In her first feature film, Pauline Loquès demonstrates mastery through her sincere and direct storytelling. Nino is an important work with dialogue and events that feel true to life and emotions are unflitered. Théodore Pellerin, who plays the lead role, gives a deeply emotional and natural performance. His confusion, vulnerability, and feelings of compulsion draw the audience in from the very first moment.

Nino is always in contact with the color blue. It's an appropriate choice according to colour theory for a character who is seeking peace and has not lost hope. The spirit of all the locations featured has also been meticulously captured. For example, when Nino first goes to the hospital, everything is under renovation, but when he goes for treatment, the hospital is completely clean.

The drama is driven by three main elements – Nino's mother (Jeanne Balibar), his friends, and his old schoolmate, Zoé (Salomé Dewaels). As Nino tries to heal his bewilderment in various places and with different people, he takes the audience on a tour of Paris. In each scene, viewers feel as if they are watching a segment of an ongoing story, not a new beginning.

Cinematographer Lucie Baudinaud establishes an authentic connection between Nino and the audience thanks to a shooting style that never lets the viewer lose focus for a single moment. Also, the composer Thibault Deboaisne enriches the auditory world with his meticulously crafted modernist music.

The rules of life remain constant and timeless, regardless of what happens, just as one death heralds another birth. Indeed, throughout the film, Nino constantly questions his mother about his father's death and his own birth, seeking a way out of the predicament he finds himself in. His persistence in walking forward, no matter how foggy the world may be, brings light. This new day that emerges can sometimes take a person back exactly 29 years, just like a newborn.

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