Fir: Guillaume Nicloux | Cast: Pom Klementieff, Benoît Magimel, Freya Mavor, Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Anaël Snoek, Elina Löwensohn | 113’ World Premiere
Moving swiftly on from his previous themes – from nuns, babies and now nightclub nutters – Guillaume Nicloux’s latest is a dreamily hypnotic neon-soaked thriller that pulpily projects the spaced out demeanour of its protagonists on a sun-drenched, drug-fuelled hideout in Maspalomas, Gran Canaria,
Mi Amor is unremarkable narrative-wise but fabulously filmic and compulsively watchable due to the brilliant casting of Pom Klementieff, Benoit Magimel and Astrid Berges-Frisbey not to mention some clever charactisation and writing.
The hopped-up protags are all in tune and loosely connected to the musical vibes of the club scene on the island in a story that follows Romy, an emotionally unstable electro DJ, and her best friend Chloé, who fetch up there to perform at an avantgarde nightclub called ‘The Dogging’.
Chloé (Mavor) soon vanishes without a trace and Romy (Klementieff) is forced to join forces with a sleezy letch called Vincent (Magimel), who owns the club but nurses a troubled past and secretly fancies his chances with Romy (at one point she asks him “have you ever killed anyone” to which he replies “If I say ‘yes’ does that change things”). Romy, who’s having a lesbian moment, also admits to a past relationship with a man, and soon finds herself drawn to Vincent’s vulnerability. The two go on to uncover some brutal animal killings possibly connected to a gang of local thugs, but Chloe remains elusive.
Intoxicated by Irene Dresel’s pulsating electronic soundscape that hums along incessantly, unobtrusive yet vital in driving the action forward, this is one of the most complimentary soundscapes ever with Dresel sensitively mirroring the film’s dramatic peaks and troughs.
Mi Amor is probably best described as a more trippy, darkly humorous version of Jan-Ole Gerster’s Islands – also set in the Canaries, in Fuerteventura, although the characters here are more edgy in their out-to-lunch style. Magimel reprises the offbeat role he perfected in Pacifiction only more so: It really is his best shtick now and he pulls it off with scanky aplomb, making Vincent amusing and strangely likeable. Despite episodes of extreme violence Mi Amor is Nicloux’s most film enjoyable in a long time.
ROTTERDAM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL | LIMELIGHT STRAND | 2026