Fingernails director says society's over reliance on technology to find love is 'scary'
The filmmaker said modern dating, which inspired the dystopian future in his film, is 'a little bit scary'
Watch: Fingernails director Christos Nikou finds modern dating 'a little bit scary'
Fingernails director Nikous Christou explores what it means to be in love in his dystopian Apple TV+ film, a concept he is "still trying to understand" particularly with the state of modern dating methods he tells Yahoo UK.
The movie stars Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed and Jeremy Allen White, and it imagines a world in which true love can be determined for by ripping one's fingernails off and having it tested — the veracity of which Buckley's Anna begins to question when she meets Ahmed's Amir despite being in a relationship.
Read more: What to watch on Apple TV+ in November 2023
Despite looking so closely at love in his film, Nikou says: "I'm still trying to understand what love is and why love has changed so much the last [few] years and why people are looking for answers in their devices.
"Right now most people are swiping right or left in order to find love with their fingers, and their fingernails, [on apps like Tinder].
"They are looking for the right person in that way instead of going to meet somebody and follow their instinct, it's a little bit scary for me to be honest.
"It's a little bit scary because I am meeting more and more people, and especially people that are in their 20s, [who are] doing only that and I just hope that it will change."Christos Nikou
Nikou believes "our world is becoming more and more clinical" when it comes to romance, which is why he felt compelled to make the Apple TV+ film and, hopefully, reflect a mirror back on the audience.
"I will call it robotic because we are trying to look for answers in our devices, in the machines, even in our cell phones, for everything. We're always looking for answers there."
The idea of ripping one's fingernails to test whether you're truly in love was something Nikou landed on to link "physical pain with the pain of love" equally.
"We were trying to find what would be the ideal test, how it would be the ideal test, and then I was talking with my two producers and I told them that I want to find something that is from our fingers," he reflects.
"That's because... phones are the extension of our fingers, and then we decided that because our nails are something that you can remove and it can grow [back] again — like love sometimes."
"We feel more vulnerable when we are losing it," he adds.
As well as question what it means to love, Nikou's film pokes fun at how society sees it and has created stereotypes around love like French being the most romantic language, and how being caught in the rain with your other half is as romantic as it is in the movies.
Reflecting on why he wanted to point this out, the Greek director says: "It's very funny that we have created in our mind all these stereotypes.
"When, I think, that romance is somewhere else and we are missing it, and we just need to get it back to have it."
Regardless of his interpretation of modern love, though, Nikou is quick to say that he doesn't want to send any message to viewers with his film.
"The whole thing that we created, we are not trying to give answers about love because we are not gods that we know all the answers."Christos Nikou
"I just hope that [the audience] will just feel the emotions from the movie, they will question a lot of things about themselves, about their relationships, about how they're trying to find love in their life."
Fingernails premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday, 3 November.
Watch the trailer for Fingernails:
