Nils Tavernier

Born 1965, Paris. He made his first cinema appearance in the feature film SPOILED CHILDREN (DES ENFANTS GÂTES, 1977), by his father, Bertrand Tavernier. Then he played in his father’s feature films BEATRICE (LA PASSION BÉATRICE, 1987), L. 627 (1992), REVENGE OF THE MUSKETEERS (LA FILLE DE D’ARTAGNAN, 1994). He also played in STORY OF WOMEN (UNE AFFAIRE DE FEMMES, 1988) by Claude Chabrol, THE LIGHT OF THE LAKE (LA LUMIÈRE DU LAC, 1988) by Francesca Comencini, VALMONT (1989) by Milos Forman. Later he began his director career shooting the documentaries TOUT PRÈS DES ÉTOILES (2001), HISTOIRES DE VIES BRISÉES: LES “DOUBLE PEINE” DE LYON (2001, co-directed along with his father), L’ODYSSÉE DE LA VIE (2006). In 2006 he made his first theatrical fiction feature film, AURORE.

Director’s statement

“For the past 20 years, I’ve been very interested in children and sickness, and I’d just spent two years at the Necker hospital in Paris in the neurology department working on a documentary. As such, I wanted to address the incredible strength of some of these kids who are different to the rest. I realized that in case of some particularly serious illnesses, children can have this amazing vital energy that they spread around them, that they spread to me and which they spread to their own families. I didn’t want extraordinary characters for my film but I didn’t want them to be banal either – I wanted people who could be any of us and who reveal themselves to be exceptional thanks to the child in question. Then I came across this video on the internet about a child with cerebral palsy who asked his dad to do an Ironman race and his dad agreed. That’s the perfect example of what I’d observed, mainly in terms of that incredible strength I just mentioned. Sometimes, these dads, who can no longer stand that their kids are different, suddenly become these forces of nature thanks to the energy of their child. So I wanted to make a film in which the protagonist has a disability, but where we quickly forget the illness – we see how they are different, but as soon as we accept that difference with the energy that comes from it, we no longer see the disability. I think that is wonderful. In many families confronted with disability, I’ve seen their energy of change driven by the child. This is not automatic – some children find themselves in a permanent state of sadness because of their condition – but the story of the family in the film is above all that of a kid who pushes his parents to show who they really are. Through him, his parents change their fixed ideas on who they are. They surpass themselves and discover the very best in themselves. I thought that it is magnificent that an 18-year-old kid could so radically change his own dad’s life. The father’s psychological construction –fleeing and rejection – changes direction under the influence of his child. And God knows how difficult it is to change once you’ve defined yourself as an adult with all your prejudices”.