41st edition COURTS MÉTRAGES 2026
SOUFFLE D'AILLEURS
Toshihiro NOBORI
Kotaro, an old friend, returns to Paris to finalize his divorce from his French ex-wife. As he opens the boxes he left behind, memories and wounds resurface. Will he manage to breathe new life into it?
A word from the selection committee :
Toshihori Nobori’s pared-down mise-en-scène makes room for everything, and above all grace. The Japanese director first takes to the streets of Paris, opening his film outside the Jean-Pierre Melville media library (the film’s only nod to traditional French cinema), before quickly retreating to a flat with his friend Kotaro, who has just emerged from a metro station. Together, they will rummage through boxes and scraps of memories. The narrative device shatters: it is no longer a director and his subject, but two friends confiding in one another under the burden of recollection. Their conversation is beautiful because it chafes and rubs, conveying the dizzying nature of existence through material details: different kinds of grief intertwine, the realities of foreign countries blur into one another. The film amounts to little more than a handful of shots, slick frames that welcome free-flowing speech with remarkable care; a delicious subtlety that never stands in the way of emotions – infectious emotions, captured in Kotaro’s wavering voice and dewy face.
Pierre Guidez
Traduction : Aurore Kahan
- Scénario
- Toshihiro Nobori
- Photographie
- Corentin Courage
- Son
- Quentin Lenoir
- Montage
- Toshihiro Nobori
- Production
- Toshihiro Nobori
Toshihiro Nobori studied film at Rikkyo University in Japan before moving to Paris, where she completed a master’s degree in philosophy. He then joined Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains, where he directed Subtle Issue (2021) and the award-winning VR film Resonating Time (2021).