Canadian director Denis Côté’s new film, Nobody’s Violence, was written while a progressive kidney disease left him unsure whether he would receive a transplant, require dialysis or die. Premiering at the Locarno Film Festival, the drama uses a young woman involved in assisted-death pacts to explore mortality, hope and living under the threat of death, rather than to make a direct political statement about assisted dying.

Côté received a kidney from a friend in August 2023, restoring his health and ability to continue filmmaking after his kidney function had fallen critically low. His 17th feature stars Larissa Corriveau as the withdrawn protagonist Mira, alongside Philippe Rebbot and Xavier Bergeron; it is being sold internationally by Heretic Films. Côté says the story was shaped by the uncertain, “in-between” period of his illness, and notes that Canada legalised medical assistance in dying in 2016.