Nino: Review by Alex Petrescu

Nino from 5 to 7

Over the course of a bleak weekend in Paris, a young man receives a cancer diagnosis.

by Alex Petrescu

Nino Clavel (Théodore Pellerin) seems like a man you might pass by on the street, giving him at best a momentary glance. But like all people, he carries within him a story that’s worth telling. The opening shot finds him in a hospital that’s very much like him – a space under construction. During his consultation, a metal pipe is heard falling just as he receives the bad news of a throat cancer diagnosis, caused by HPV. The shaky handheld camera switches to a close-up, trying to capture his inner world being demolished. His facial muscles contract into an expression that denotes confusion more than anything else.

The tungsten-tinted, grainy film adheres to Nino’s world. An imminent chemotherapy treatment is approaching; he needs to find a partner for upcoming therapy sessions and freeze his sperm, as the chances of becoming sterile increase. The two days between the diagnosis and the start of the treatment don’t put him in a rush, though; he maintains his composure, exuding idleness. No matter how close his friends are, he presents himself as aloof, having a hard time opening up about his diagnosis and feelings. It’s an equally challenging task to write about a French John Doe as much as it is to act the part.

Théodore Pellerin is a prominent young actor starring in Boy Erased (2018), Beau Is Afraid (2023), and Lurker (2025), among some other noticeable roles. Coming from Quebec to play a role set in Paris, Pellerin is mirroring the displacement that Nino also feels around his peers. Pauline Loquès’s visual style comprises almost exclusively close-ups of Nino, as the director places the camera focus on Pellerin’s microexpressions to convey the impression of a person with a burden he cannot share. He barely smirks when laughing and keeps a serene air during his birthday party.

The episodic structure suffers a sudden tone shift towards the end, turning the story from a realist drama into a poetic romantic story. A spark ignites between Nino and old schoolmate Zoé (Salomé Dewaels), whom he bumps into at a café. It feels as if this subplot is shoved to the end of Nino’s preparatory weekend to bring about some meaning. The romantic chemistry between them is artificially catalysed by their personal remake of Marina Abramović’s The Artist Is Present, a contemporary performance in which Abramović sat at a table for almost 800 hours and looked at the people who wished to sit opposite her. After reenacting this piece, Zoé reads Nino a passage from a softcore erotic novel to arouse him and facilitate the collection of his sample. This tonality change in storytelling is too abrupt; the sensitivity of these two characters had hardly been built up to this point, so the shift feels forced.

“Life’s an accident”, as the lyrics of a song being blasted in one scene remind us. The closing shot brings us back to that same hospital, but this time Nino seems to have finally come to terms with the unpredictability of life. Usually, it’s not heroes who act to find the meaning of life, but ordinary people who are never sure how to deal with it. And life is just a journey of dealing with hardships. 

Director: Pauline Loquès
Writer: Pauline Loquès, Maud Ameline|
Cast: Théodore Pellerin, William Lebghil, Salomé Dewaels, Jeanne Balibar
Running Time: 97 min.
Country: France
Year: 2025

©FIPRESCI 2025