Cannes 2025 (Critics’ Week): Nino (dir. Pauline Loquès) | Review
Théodore Pellerin delivers a remarkable performance as Nino, raggedly heartbreaking as a character whose life is shattered in Pauline Loquès’ astonishing directorial debut.
It doesn’t take long for writer-director Pauline Loquès to draw us into her story. It’s Friday, and Nino Clavel is at the hospital to collect the results for a sick note, only to be told he must attend a treatment plan appointment—something he hadn’t expected that day. The doctor informs him that he has throat cancer caused by a sexually transmitted infection, a reality that’s difficult to accept, especially since he is not currently in a relationship. The doctor explains that the infection may have been contracted during his early adulthood or late adolescence. Nino soon learns he has just three days before beginning treatment: six rounds of chemotherapy followed by twelve sessions of radiotherapy. There is also an urgent need to freeze his sperm—a process that, if not done, could leave him unable to have children in the future.
Set over the course of just three days, Nino captures a man’s world unraveling as he approaches his 29th birthday. The typically bustling streets of Paris—vibrant by day, electric by night—become cold and hollow through his eyes. With refined, expressive camerawork and a persistent sense of quiet collapse, Pauline Loquès presents a moving portrait of a man losing his grip in an urban landscape marked by pallid interiors and neon-lit nights. When Nino discovers he has lost the key to his apartment, he finds himself not only searching for a place to sleep, but also for someone he can trust to accompany him through the quiet weight of the coming Monday.
Canadian actor Théodore Pellerin fully inhabits the title role, and through his portrayal of Nino, he offers us the realization that life is fleeting, ever-changing, unpredictable, and painful—yet it must continue to unfold. It’s remarkable how Pellerin brings to life a character confronting a harsh reality felt deeply by those who silently carry their pain.
Special credit must go to casting director Youna de Perreti. Much like Nino’s search for someone to accompany him in a time of need, Perreti has assembled a cast that not only reveals the film’s emotional core but elevates it with remarkable depth and tenderness, transforming Nino into one of the most soulful and resonant titles at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
At its core, Nino contemplates life as an ever-unfolding puzzle, lingering in the spaces between doubt and discovery, where meaning isn’t handed to us but slowly and tenderly found.
Nino is produced by Sandra de Fonseca for Blue Monday Productions and co-produced by France 2 Cinéma. The Party Film Sales is handling international sales, with Jour2Fête as the French distributor.
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