Denis Côté discusses his kidney transplant as he heads to Locarno with assisted-death drama ‘Nobody’s Violence’

Denis Côté is set to bring his assisted-death drama, “Nobody’s Violence,” to the Locarno Film Festival, and in a pre-premiere interview he tied the film’s themes to his own health crisis. Speaking ahead of the movie’s appearance at the festival, the director described undergoing a kidney transplant and said he is working through recovery while continuing to promote the project.

Côté, who has built a career around intimate, character-driven films, said he is also returning to a long-running creative partnership. He noted that he is working with Larissa Corriveau for the sixth time, framing the repeated collaboration as part of the working rhythm behind “Nobody’s Violence.” The interview characterized the producer-actor or director-performer relationship in terms of continuity across multiple projects, rather than as a one-off casting choice.

Beyond the film’s production process, Côté said he is dedicating “Nobody’s Violence” to his late mother. The dedication places a personal family context around a story described as an assisted-death drama, with the director presenting the project as connected to lived experience and the emotional reality of end-of-life decisions.

Côté’s remarks place his recovery from the kidney transplant in the foreground as he prepares for the festival environment, where premieres are typically followed by interviews and extended press activity. While the interview did not provide a medical timeline beyond the fact of the transplant and ongoing fight for his own life, it underscored that the director’s return to public-facing work is occurring alongside personal treatment.

The film is positioned for international exposure through Locarno, a major European festival that serves as a platform for art-house and auteur-led cinema. For film distributors and sales agents, premieres like this can influence visibility in the weeks and months that follow, including festival-to-festival momentum and the ability to reach buyers who attend screenings during the event.

For audiences, the pairing of Côté’s personal health situation with an assisted-death film raises questions about how creators process difficult subject matter and how such themes are received in public settings. In his interview, Côté did not present the film as autobiographical, but he did connect the project’s end-of-life subject matter to his own struggle and family commitments, framing the upcoming festival stop as both professional and deeply personal.