– CANNES 2026: Bruno Dumont heads south and reinvents the classic “love story” against a backdrop of class struggle and through the lens of early childhood in a bold and technically accomplished film
Kaylon Lancel and Kelsie Verdeilles in Red Rocks
“You know it’s forbidden to jump off the rocks.” Just like Géo, a five-year-old boy – a sort of little brother to Li’l Quinquin and the main character in his new film, Red Rocks, unveiled in a special screening in the Directors’ Fortnight at the 79th Cannes Film Festival – Bruno Dumont is never afraid to take risks. Leaving behind his favourite northern settings on the Opal Coast to head for the Mediterranean, not far from Italy (“the seaside changes, that’s the game”), the filmmaker beautifully transplants his favourite themes there whilst brilliantly rising to a daring challenge: entrusting all the lead roles to a troupe of children the same age as Géo, all left virtually free to roam under the summer sun. So here we are, swept up in a Romeo and Juliet-esque story of a truly new kind, spiced with a dash of pint-sized “bad boys” from working-class backgrounds (mobile homes and the like) versus the offspring of the wealthy villas.
Mini-quads and mini-motorbikes: at the foot of the viaduct where they meet up every day, Géo (Kaylon Lancel), Rouben (Mohamed Coly) and Manon (Louise Podolski) are as close as can be, sharing swimming trips away from their small town, in the currents and waves lapping around the large rocks they climb to get the thrill of jumping into the water. But they also share the spoils of their forays into the hills of the countryside, where they commit petty thefts (toys suitable for their age, diving goggles) from the unlocked cars of picnickers. The cheeky Géo (who suffers from tics) is the leader of the friendly trio and Manon is his girlfriend, in all the innocence of their tender age (hand in hand, snuggles). But one day, amidst the rocks, another trio emerges, from ‘good families’, consisting of B (Alessandro Piquera), Do (Meryl Pires) and Eve (Kelsie Verdeilles). Between Eve and Géo, it is a tempting and dangerous love at first sight…
By transposing the classic narrative of seemingly impossible love between two people from vastly different social classes onto the landscape of childhood, Bruno Dumont offers a crystal-clear return to the essence of human relationships, sustained by silences, glances, gestures, minimalist dialogue and seemingly trivial situations that take on epic proportions, at times verging on Western-style confrontations. Like a dog having fun in a game of skittles, Géo is not afraid to push himself, disrupting the social order and defying the barriers erected by authority against those who dare to cross its boundaries. A philosophical tableau (Eden and the world) on a Lilliputian scale that Bruno Dumont crafts within a magnificent visual setting, making meticulous use (“to the left, to the right, up, down”) of an exceptional natural backdrop – the immensity of the sky and the sea, the trains criss-crossing the viaduct, the road and the beach below, the backdrop of green hills and, of course, the red rocks and their evocative power – as timeless as eternal human history.
Red Rocks was produced by Rosa Filmes (Portugal) and co-produced by French companies Tessalit and Luxbox (who handles international sales), Nightswim (Italy), Pulpa Films (US), Andergraun Films (Spain) and Sula Films (Mexico).
(Translated from French)
