Apple TV+ has released the first clip from director Christos Nikou's Fingernails ahead of its November 3 premiere on the streaming platform. The film will also receive a limited theatrical run in select theaters, beginning on October 27.
The sci-fi romance comedy was co-written by Nikous alongside Stavros Raptis and Sam Steiner. The film will serve as Nikou's English-language debut.
In the film, scientists develop a computer that can determine whether a couple is genuinely in love by scanning their fingernails.
Jessie Buckley (Wild Rose, Chernobyl) takes on the role of Anna, a new employee at a testing facility where the testing machines are stored. She is presently coupled with Ryan, who is played by Jeremy Allen White (Shameless, The Bear). Their test results show that they're a great match, but Anna can't see how that's possible since she's developing feelings for her coworker Amir, played by Riz Ahmed (Rogue One, Sound of Metal).
Luke Wilson and Annie Murphy also appear in the film in supporting roles.
Cate Blanchett produced the picture after becoming a fan of Nikou after seeing his debut film, Apples, at the 2020 Venice Film Festival.
Fingernails was initially set to premiere at TIFF on September 12 but recently debuted a little earlier, at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2023.
Starring Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, and Jeremy Allen White, Greek director Christos Nikou’s English-language debut weaves an allegory about our desire for certainty, reliance on technology, and the price we pay for losing the connection to our most primal instincts.
Set in an uncanny future — or perhaps a slightly alternate present where cellphone technology is nowhere to be found — Anna (Jessie Buckley; Sarah Polley’s Women Talking, TIFF ’22) and her partner Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) have achieved every couple’s dream: they are in possession of a document certifying their true love.
Their comfortable if somewhat mundane life, however, leaves Anna questioning their successful love test, administered by placing their extracted fingernails into a cutting-edge machine. Anna soon begins working for the Love Institute under the tutelage of Duncan (Luke Wilson), which, in addition to determining a couples’ status via the mysterious test, trains them to deepen bonds.
There, she’s paired with the experienced — and devastatingly charming — Amir (Riz Ahmed; Sound of Metal, TIFF ’19) to take couples at various stages of relationships through a series of love-building activities before the big test. As the new colleagues work to ameliorate the connections of clients, Anna begins to wonder if perhaps Amir is her one true love and if trusting her own feelings is a more reliable metric than what is determined by a machine.