The 79th Locarno Film Festival opens on Wednesday with the world premiere of "The Green Eyes" (Les Yeux Verts), a drama inspired by "resignation syndrome," a rare condition in which traumatised refugee children fall into a coma-like state. Directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh say they wanted to tell the story from a child's perspective to "try to revive empathy," blending adventure and drama to explore the emotional toll of forced displacement on families facing deportation.

The film follows 11-year-old Chaya, who lives with her family in France's Landes region and tries to save her older brother Nour after he falls into a mysterious deep sleep when the family faces deportation, diving into his dreams to find him. A France-Belgium-Sweden co-production, it stars Douae Butarbuch M'Zaouki, Sayyid El Alami, Anamaria Vartolomei, Arcadi Radeff and Omar Al Jbaai, with a screenplay co-written with Guillaume Laurant ("Amélie"). It premieres on Locarno's Piazza Grande following the presentation of this year's Excellence Award to Isabella Rossellini.