The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively premiered the trailer for The Green Eyes (Les Yeux Verts), the refugee adventure drama that opens the 79th Locarno Film Festival on Wednesday evening (The Hollywood Reporter, 5 August 2026).

The film is written and directed by the French duo Fanny Liatard and Jérémie Trouilh, who previously made Gagarine. Their screenplay was co-written with Guillaume Laurant, whose credits include Amélie. The story centres on 11-year-old Chaya and her refugee family, who live in the Landes region of France. When the family faces deportation, Chaya's older brother Nour falls into a deep and mysterious sleep, and Chaya dives into his dreams to find him and bring him back.

The premise is drawn from Resignation Syndrome, a rare condition in which psychologically traumatised refugee children fall into a coma-like state of deep withdrawal and unresponsiveness. Liatard and Trouilh build their narrative around the condition rather than dramatising it as medical case material — the dream-dive gives the story its adventure spine.

The cast mixes newcomers and familiar faces. Douae Butarbuch M'Zaouki leads as Chaya. Sayyid El Alami, seen in Messiah and A Gentleman in Moscow, and Anamaria Vartolomei, of Happening and Mickey 17, co-star. Cinematography is by Victor Seguin, with editing by Tina Baz and Daniel Darbon.

The Green Eyes is a co-production of France, Belgium and Sweden. The production companies behind it are June Films, Haut et Court, Les Films du Fleuve, Hobab and France 3 Cinéma (Locarno Film Festival programme). International sales are handled by Kinology, and the Swiss distributor is Filmcoopi Zürich (The Hollywood Reporter, 5 August 2026).

Locarno's Piazza Grande — the festival's 8,000-seat open-air venue — is where the film will have its world premiere. The screening follows the presentation of the Excellence Award to Isabella Rossellini, with the film rolling at 21:30 on a programme that also lists a Thursday, 6 August Piazza Grande date (Locarno Film Festival schedule, 5 August 2026). The film runs 85 minutes, in DCP 2K, colour, and screens in its original French and Arabic (Locarno Film Festival, Piazza Grande programme).

The Locarno festival confirmed The Green Eyes among its 2026 titles when it unveiled its full programme on 9 July (The Hollywood Reporter, 9 July 2026), with a dedicated feature on the film following on 3 August (The Hollywood Reporter, 3 August 2026).

For a festival that prides itself on open-air spectacle on the Piazza Grande, opening with a lean, 85-minute debut about a child navigating her brother's unconscious — in French and Arabic — sets a distinctive tone for the 79th edition.