'Fingernails' filmmaker Christos Nikou welcomed to Toronto with hearts to shoot movie
Nikou's movie explores the complexities of finding love, starring Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White and Luke Wilson
True love has proven to be hard to find and complicated to navigate, creating the perfect vehicle for Christos Nikou's film Fingernails, starring Jeremy Allen White, Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed and Luke Wilson.
Where to watch Fingernails: Now in select theatres, on Apple TV+ Nov. 3
Director: Christos Nikou
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson
Runtime: 113 minutes
Nikou’s English-language debut is set in a world where, to confirm that you've found your perfect romantic match, a love test can be administered. In order for the test to work, a fingernail needs to be extracted from each person so a special machine can determine where the love between two people stand, with the goal of getting a 100 per cent score.
Anna (Buckley) has successfully found her perfect partner, Ryan (White), but she's still having doubts. With questions about her relationship on her mind, she takes a job at the Love Institute, under founder Duncan (Luke Wilson).
That's where Anna meets Amir (Ahmed), whose job includes working with couples on a series of exercises before the test, with the hope of strengthening their love for each other. Feeling drawn to Amir's charm, Anna starts to wonder if Amir could possibly be her true love match, instead of Ryan.
Watch Fingernails on Apple TV+ with a 7-day free trial, then $12.99/month
Fingernails was shot in Toronto and was also part of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.
"It's a very clean city. It's a very beautiful city. So it's the perfect city for me to make a movie about love," Nikou told Yahoo Canada in an interview conducted in Toronto during TIFF.
In trying to find the place to shoot this movie about love, the neon hearts that many people in Canada put at their windows throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in support of frontline healthcare workers, also acted as a sort of sign for the filmmaker. Even though he didn't actually know why Torontonians started putting these hearts at their windows.
"It's funny because when I arrived here, started scouting, I was seeing all these windows [where people had] heart," Nikou siad. "I haven't seen it in another city."
'They are amazing actors, but mostly they are amazing humans'
With the shooting location set, in terms of collaborating with his actors, Nikou described the process as "super creative."
"We had great relationships and communication from the beginning," he said. "We were trying to find ways for them to understand the tone of the film ... and get into the mode of the film."
"We [had] a lot of discussions. We did some rehearsals and improvisations on that, and then every day on set, I was playing one song before shooting every scene. I had a song for every scene that was creating the whole mood of the scene, to the whole crew and the cast. So the actors were, by listening to the song, by listening to the music, were trying to get the right emotions to bring to the film."
An example of a song Nikou played on set was "What He Wrote" by Laura Marling, for a particularly emotional moment between Buckley and White's characters.
Watch Fingernails on Apple TV+ with a 7-day free trial, then $12.99/month
In navigating the evolution in the relationship between Anna and Amir, Nikou shared that there were also conversations about how to bring the comedy forward in many scenes, ranging from a deadpan approach to the humour or using specific body language.
"But at the same time, to never forget that we're trying to create something really tender, romantic, warm and emotional, so that the audience will feel all these emotions that they're having," he said.
"They are amazing actors, but mostly they are amazing humans. They're very thoughtful, both of them, and they love cinema so much. They were so passionate about it. It was the easiest collaboration I've ever had. We were communicating without even needing [to talk sometimes]. It was very, very easy for me."
Our reliance on technology to build relationships
Visually, Fingernails is set within a very specific aesthetic. The film uses mostly primary colours, putting the story in a world where technology largely isn't present, aside from the love test machine,.
"We wanted to create something more analog in the film," Nikou explained. "We wanted to make a comment on how our society goes through technology in order to find love, and how they're trying to look for answers through technology."
"I think it's more powerful to show that with the absence of technology than to show all the time people checking their phones and things like that. ... At the same time, we tried to keep only one technological device, ... which is the test machine. That symbolizes the whole technology and how people are looking for an answer through that in order to find the right partner."
Overall, Nikou hopes that people start to evaluate their own relationships when they watch Fingernails.
"It would be lovely if people ... start thinking about their own relationship, their own decisions in love," he said. "If they can keep the movie, after the credits roll, a little bit longer in their mind and think about it, it would be perfect."
