Maybe we would all benefit from getting a chance to see the world through a child’s eyes every now and then. And maybe we would question some of our views and feel more empathy if we got a chance to see the world through a refugee child’s eyes. French writers-directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh are giving us the chance to experience this child’s perspective in Les Yeux Verts (The Green Eyes), which opens the 79th edition of the Locarno Film Festival on Wednesday evening.
The refugee adventure drama, world-premiering on the big square, the Piazza Grande, of the Swiss city, after the presentation of the Excellence Award to Isabella Rossellini, is inspired by Resignation Syndrome, a rare condition that sees psychologically traumatized refugee children fall into a coma-like state of deep withdrawal and unresponsiveness.
The Green Eyes revolves around Chaya, 11, and her family. The refugee family lives in the Landes region of France. When it faces deportation, Chaya’s older brother Nour falls into a deep and mysterious sleep. “Chaya will do everything she can to wake him up, even going so far as to dive into his dreams to find him,” a synopsis teases the journey ahead.
“Les Yeux Verts is an adventure, a story of resilience told from a child’s perspective and set against the backdrop of a turbulent world in which they are trying to find their place,” Liatard and Trouilh highlight in a joint directors’ note.
Starring newcomer Douae Butarbuch M’Zaouki, Sayyid El Alami (Messiah, A Gentleman in Moscow) and Anamaria Vartolomei (Happening, Mickey 17), the co-production between France, Belgium, and Sweden is based on a screenplay that the directors (Gagarine) wrote together with Guillaume Laurant (Amélie). With cinematography by Victor Seguin and editing by Tina Baz and Daniel Darmon, the film has a Swiss distributor in Filmcoopi Zürich. Kinology is handling international sales.
Ahead of its world premiere that will kick off Locarno 2026, THR can exclusively premiere a trailer for The Green Eyes below. You will get a first look at Chaya and a first sense of the adventure that awaits her. The only question left to answer is: Are you ready to dive into a cinematic experience that allows you to see a chaotic world through a child’s eyes?