06/08/2026 - The second feature by Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh tells the story of a family of immigrants wrestling with fear over their imminent expulsion

Douae Butarbuch M’Zaouki and Sayyid El Alami in The Green Eyes

Always interested in exploring the social reality around them in all its paradoxes, injustices and unexpected moments of tenderness, French directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh have decided to centre their second feature, The Green Eyes, presented on the Locarno Film Festival’s Piazza Grande, on all those living with the fear of being sent back to a war-torn country they no longer recognise as their own. The film’s protagonists are 11-year-old Chaya (played by youngster Douae Butarbuch M’Zaouki), her brother Nour (Sayyid El Alami) and their father (Omar Aljbaai). They’re haunted by the ghost of their mother, about whom none of them have the strength to talk so great is the pain of their loss. But, notwithstanding the traumas clouding their everyday lives, the sense of security and support they’ve found in the French region of Landes helps them to look to the future with a minimum of confidence… Until they receive a letter informing them that their asylum request has been rejected. It’s yet another shock, which sends Nour into an inexplicable, deep sleep.

Having picked their way through hell and savoured a new sense of serenity over the past three years, Chaya, Nour and their dad stand to lose everything: their home, their security and the people they love, especially rebellious and idealistic Benjamin (played by Swiss actor Arcadi Radeff) and his Grandma Mamé with whom Chaya and Nour take refuge, safe in the knowledge that they’re not being judged. At the mercy of the French system, the film’s protagonists struggle on, remaining united and trying to contain a fear which is winding its way into every area of their lives. In order to stay in Landes, which they consider to be their new home, they’re forced to share intimate details of their life, which has been so full of such terrible disappointments and traumas it’s impossible to put them into words. When this dream also falls apart, Nour decides to throw in the towel, drifting into an inexplicable, deep sleep, scientifically known as “resignation syndrome”. It’s a kind of coma which can last several years and which often affects migrant people who are forced to leave the land which they’ve risked their lives to reach. A form of hibernation, conscious renunciation or a necessary parenthesis to manage a pain too intense to withstand.

Unable to believe the reality they’re faced with, the two siblings slowly take refuge in a magical world characterised by lucky objects, warning signs, and a profound bond with the natural world which surrounds them and welcomes them without restrictions. Initially, Nour manages to keep a lid on the nightmares plaguing him, thanks to the drawings he keeps in his album, but when he’s refused a residency permit everything implodes, shattering his hopes. It’s yet another trauma and a final straw which leaves him no choice but to withdraw from the world and take refuge in the dreams inhabiting his subconscious. Determined to rouse Nour by taking him back to their present reality, Chaya also forces her way into his dreams, embarking on a highly perilous journey from which she might not ever return.

Frighteningly real but also imbued with symbolism, the film tries to lend form to a pain which is often indescribable, a wound so deep it can never truly be healed. When reality is no longer bearable, the mind must take refuge elsewhere, in dreams or artificial paradises. It’s a form of resilience which transcends real-life, transporting these sleepers far, far away where, even if only for a moment, borders no longer exist.  

The Green Eyes was produced by French firms June Films and Haut et Court, alongside Belgium’s Les Films du Fleuve and Sweden’s Hobab. Paris-based Kinology is handling its world sales.

(Translated from Italian)