In the near future, or an alternative present, couples can validate their relationships in a bizarre test involving fingernail analysis. Anna (Jessie Buckley) and her long-time boyfriend Ryan (Jeremy Allen White) received a 100% positive match when they first tested, but, anxious that they have settled into a predictable, stale routine, she is hoping to retest.

Maybe they’ll receive a 50% result, indicating that only one partner is in love (the identity of whom will remain frustratingly unknown), or the dreaded 0%. To allay her fears she secretly takes a job at a facility where pre-test couples are schooled in the arts of love. There she meets co-worker Amir (Riz Ahmed) for whom she begins to develop inconvenient feelings. Echoes of Yorgos Lanthimos, his fellow countryman, ring throughout Christos Nikou’s satirical, bittersweet, and moving second feature.

Notes by David O’Mahony