by Alex Billington
May 8, 2026
Source: YouTube
“We don’t really care, right?” Let the kids play! The Film Stage has revealed the first look trailer for the film titled Red Rocks, the latest creation from the mind of singular French filmmaker Bruno Dumont (he last made the sci-fi The Empire). This is premiering this month at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival playing in the Directors Fortnight sidebar where they’re also hosting a retrospective on Dumont’s filmography so far. Red Rocks is a feature (not a doc!) about a group of kids getting into trouble on the Cote d’Azur. On the French Riviera, the film chronicles the rivalry between two gangs of kids, locals and summer visitors, competing in the perilous game of cliff jumping. Their story turns into a “Romeo and Juliet”-style romance, a game of life, love and death. The film has a documentary vibe, using lots of wide-angle lenses. “A world where friendship blends with rivalry, and where the first stirrings of the heart emerge against the dazzling Mediterranean landscape.” As the kids: Kaylon Lancel (Géo), Kelsie Verdeilles (Eve), Louise Podolski (Manon), Mohamed Coly (Rouben), Alessandro Piquera (B), Meryl Pires (Do). Looks superb! Will be a fun one.
Here’s the first festival trailer (+ poster) for Bruno Dumont’s film Red Rocks, from YouTube (via TFS):
On the French Riviera, two gangs of kids compete in the perilous game of cliff jumping. Géo, barely five years old, discovers over the course of a summer a world where friendship blends with rivalry, and where the first stirrings of the heart emerge against the dazzling Mediterranean landscape. Shot in the French Riviera, with very young children, the film adopts a documentary-like approach, led by the deliberate use of wide-angle lenses. Once again, Dumont explores the grace that can emerge from cinema. Red Rocks, also known as Les Roches rouges in French, is directed by French filmmaker Bruno Dumont, director of The Life of Jesus, Humanity, Twentynine Palms, Flanders, Hadewijch, Outside Satan, Camille Claudel 1915, Slack Bay, Joan of Arc, France, and The Empire. Produced by Joaquim Sapinho, Marta Alves, Fiorella Moretti. With cinematography by Carlos Alfonso Corral. This is premiering at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar section. No release dates are set yet – stay tuned for updates. Looks good?
