08/04/2025 - Romain Duris leads the French filmmaker’s new project, produced by Mandarin & Cie and Playtime

Actor Romain Duris (© Marie Rouge/Unifrance)

After shooting in Thailand between 20 January and 28 February, then in Paris from 14 to 21 March, Nobody’s Son by Safy Nebbou is now in post-production. This is the filmmaker’s seventh feature film after The Giraffe’s Neck (2004), Mark of an Angel [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2008), Dumas [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Special Screening in Berlin in 2010), Bad Seeds [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (2012), In the Forests of Siberia [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Best Score César and Lumière winner in 2017) and Who You Think I Am [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juliette Binoche
film profile] (Berlinale Special in 2019).

Shining in the lead role is Romain Duris (nominated five times for the Best Actor César, including last year for The Animal Kingdom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Cailley
film profile], seen recently in A Missing Part [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillaume Senez
film profile], Night Call [+see also:
film review
interview: Michiel Blanchart
film profile] and the diptych The Three Musketeers [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and who we will soon see in Rembrandt, L’affaire de l’esclave Furcy and Chien 51).

Written by the director together with Cyril Gomez-Mathieu, the script centres on Mathilda and Thomas, married for over 15 years. They’ve always dreamed of having children, but their efforts were only met with failures. After having adopted Mapring, a 4-year-old boy from Thailand, their life takes a tragic turn when Mathilda dies in an accident. Thomas then finds himself alone with a child he hadn’t really wanted. Devastated by this loss and incapable of forming a bond with Mapring, he decides to go look for the child’s biological family. Accompanied by Chaan, a local guide, Thomas starts on a trying journey through Thailand. Over time, father and son start to tame each other and create bonds… However, a crucial question remains: what will Thomas do when he finds Mapring’s biological family?

Nobody’s Son is produced by Éric and Nicolas Altmayer for French outfits Mandarin & Cie and Playtime (which will lead international sales) together with Thai company TaProd, and already has in its crew two of the filmmaker’s accomplices from In the Forests of Siberia and Who You Think I Am: Gilles Porte as director of photography, and Ibrahim Maalouf as composer.

As a reminder, Mandarin & Cie already has in post-production the films Alpha by Julia Ducournau and Dalloway by Yann Gozlan (read the article - released in France next 17 September).

(Translated from French)