It was announced last night: “Nico” by Eline Gehring won the Jury Award at the 36th MiX Festival of LGBTQ + Cinema and Queer Culture in Milan! The well established film festival ran from 16 to 19 June in the capital of Lombardy, it is the oldest queer film festival in Italy.
The jury explained their decision as follows:
„For the effectiveness with which, from the very first images, we are presented with an original character with a strong queer imprint, not only from the point of view of sexual orientation, but more fully from that of intersectionality. The jury found it interesting how the film seeks to highlight the importance of recovering one’s inner strength when the context in which one lives severely tests one’s vulnerability. The film gives us a new queer heroine thanks also to the convincing performance of the lead actress.“
“Nico” is an important and moving film whose stirring leading actress makes the audience feel every moment of her painful healing process.
Synopsis:
The self-confident and lively German-Persian Nico loves her job as a geriatric nurse and is popular with everyone because of her easy-going and sympathetic manner. She enjoys the Berlin summer with her best friend Rosa until a racist attack suddenly tears her out of her carefree everyday life. Nico realises that she doesn‘t belong as self-evidently as she always thought. Haunted by flashbacks of the terrible attack, she withdraws more and more into herself.
Not only Rosa loses touch with her, but also her clients fail to recognise the young woman. Nico feels that things cannot go on like this and turns to the gruff karate champion Andy. With him she begins a tough training programme which helps her to channel her anger and discover her own strength, but she also loses touch with herself. When Nico eventually meets the Macedonian woman Ronny, a connection develops between the two that causes Nico to question the path she has chosen.
More information about the movie: Nico
More information about the film label: Darling Berlin
