Within the distant mountain village on the middle of Thanasis Neofotistos’ moody debut characteristic, the superstitious locals have a chant: “Nay Evil, yay Good!” It’s a ritual meant to thrust back strangers — and in The Boy With the Light-Blue Eyes the stranger in query is a boy whose unusually blue eyes mark him as a menace to all the things the village holds sacred.
The genre-bending Greek movie, which can be learn as a queer coming-of-age story, world premieres within the Screen Festival of SXSW London 2026 on Thursday, June 4. Starring Giorgos Karydis as Petros — a boy compelled by his strict grandmother and the village mayor to cover behind a masks — the movie is written by Neofotistos and Grigoris Skarakis, shot by Djordje Arambasic, and edited by Panagiotis Angelopoulos. Gersh is dealing with U.S. gross sales.
A cinematic allegory for exclusion, the longing to be seen and the need for love and freedom, The Boy With the Gentle-Blue Eyes makes use of a symbolic, myth-grounded visible language to inform a narrative that’s rooted in a particular place however unmistakably common. Neofotistos spoke with THR in regards to the private experiences behind the movie, its 12-year journey to the display screen and why the evil eye is greater than only a vacationer trinket.
What are you able to share in regards to the inspiration for the movie and its journey?
I’ve been engaged on this venture for nearly 12 years. It began again in 2015 as an thought, and all of it started as a result of I grew up in a type of locations [you see in the film] in Epirus on the border to Albania. The mountains in Greece are completely totally different from what all people is aware of in regards to the islands. So I grew up there. My grandmother was from a really small village with 10 households or one thing like that. She’s lifeless now, sadly, however she was very superstitious. She believed very a lot in these issues just like the evil eye, which we name ‘kako mati.’
Thanasis Neofotistos’ The Boy With the Gentle-Blue Eyes.
Courtesy of Argonauts
Are you able to inform me extra in regards to the “evil eye” and its significance?
It’s now a really touristic factor in Greece, however the mythology comes from earlier than the time of globalization and earlier than folks blended with different cultures, when Greek and Jap societies have been principally dark-eyed and dark-skinned. Again then, somebody with blue eyes was instantly a stranger or a foreigner. He wasn’t seen as belonging to them, however seen as a menace, somebody try to be afraid of. They believed {that a} stranger with blue eyes, that are all the time stunning, may give dangerous vitality to others in the event you take a look at them. This vitality may even trigger a jinx, curses and even demise.
My grandmother used to imagine that very a lot, and she or he used to inform me. “Please don’t bring me a blue-eyed wife.” However I’m a homosexual man.
Whereas watching The Boy With the Gentle-Blue Eyes, you sense the underlying theme of queer id…
Sure, it’s these two tales that I’m telling — about superstitions and what it means to be totally different, and the way random it’s to what makes somebody totally different in each society. I’m coming from a really conservative household that didn’t settle for me till my late 30s. Really, they accepted me via my tales. First, they watched my movies, after which we talked about my homosexuality.
Petros is my alter ego. However he’s not totally different as a result of he’s homosexual; he’s totally different as a result of he has blue eyes. I needed to talk about how random is to be homosexual in my household and in society. I used to be born this fashion, simply as Petros was born with blue colour in his eyes.
I wrote the movie with my co-writer, who’s now my husband. We received married final yr, and my household was there, which was very lucky. We needed folks to grasp this randomness and the way being homosexual is just not a alternative.
Petros’ mom looks like my mom in actual life. Within the movie, she tries to cover his eyes, like my mom tried to cover my sexuality from the household. After I was younger, they have been telling me to play basketball. I needed to go do ballet.
Thanasis Neofotistos
Courtesy of SXSW London
There’s some violence in The Boy With the Gentle-Blue Eyes, however I really feel it’s principally felt via phrases and habits. How did you strategy using violence?
I by no means use violence to impress. No matter occurs within the movie occurs as a result of Petros must develop up, so I really feel it’s natural to the story. All of the violence, or all of the trauma and anxieties, are there as a result of I’m a traumatized individual, as a homosexual individual.
I received bullied in highschool, that’s a really traumatic occasion. I really feel this trauma relating to a young person —Petros is 15 years previous — could be a horror story for him, and my cinematic language helps with this.
Please inform me a bit extra about your cinematic language.
It’s impressionistic storytelling with a POV, perspective. It’s all from Petros’ perspective. I by no means use something within the movie that Petros doesn’t hear or doesn’t really feel or doesn’t see. So no matter occurs round Petros, it’s about how Petros feels on the finish. I welcome the viewers to come back and really feel Petros’ battle in his coming of age, his rising up. That’s why there are additionally some magical realism components within the movie. It’s not fantasy, nevertheless it’s additionally not actuality. It’s Petros’ perspective.
You talked about violence. That is perhaps Petros’ perspective and never actuality. I’ve been doing psychotherapy. When you begin storytelling your trauma a few years after being a young person, perhaps you begin feeling like folks have been dying round you. I felt like I used to be suffocating, and other people have been attempting to take out my eyes or take away my sexuality, attempting to bind me. That’s why this violence occurs, as a result of it’s Petros’ perspective.
The Boy With the Gentle-Blue Eyes
Courtesy of Argonauts
You don’t element when the movie is about, nevertheless it feels prefer it may happen any time — and in addition wherever…
I’m a millennial. As a result of I grew up within the ’90s, I needed this really feel. It’s a timeless movie story, however along with Dafni Kalogianni, my manufacturing designer, and my costume designer, Christina Lardikou, we have been impressed by the ’90s. You see that within the colours and [objects] — there’s an previous digital camera, an previous TV someplace within the movie, there’s a microphone, so there’s a feeling to Petros’ bed room of the ’90s.
How did you forged your younger lead actor?
Giorgos was like Petros to start with. He was very shy, very introverted. However after one month of taking pictures, he turned Petros, and you’ll really feel it on the finish of the movie that each have modified. They’d a really related arc. And really, it was additionally Petros’ voice that had modified, and that was very, very shifting.
