Jurassic Park may seem like an unlikely starting point for a Greek queer folk horror film, but Thanasis Neofotistos has linked Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster to the imagination behind The Boy With the Light-Blue Eyes.
The Greek filmmaker’s feature debut will world premiere at SXSW London 2026. The film follows Petros, a teenage boy in a remote mountain village who is forced to hide his unusually light-blue eyes behind a mask.
The Hollywood Reporter framed the film through its Spielberg influence, but Neofotistos is not making a dinosaur movie. He is using genre, fear, spectacle, and superstition to tell a smaller story about a boy treated as dangerous because of how he looks.
Petros Is Forced to Hide His Eyes
SXSW London’s official description says Petros has spent his life trying to understand why his strict grandmother and protective mother make him wear a cumbersome face mask.
The answer comes after an elderly man dies in the village soon after locking eyes with him. Petros then understands what the village believes: his light-blue eyes carry a curse.
The official logline describes him as a cursed blue-eyed boy seeking love in a remote mountain ruled by superstition. Neofotistos’ own site describes the curse as the Evil Eye, turning Petros’ face into the reason his community fears him.
The Film Uses the Evil Eye as Folk Horror
The Evil Eye belief gives the film its horror shape.
Petros is not accused of a crime. He is feared because people around him believe his gaze can harm them. The mask becomes a rule imposed by his family and village before he is old enough to understand what it means.
SXSW London describes the film as a queer allegory on the dangers of ostracism. Neofotistos’ official materials call it a dark folktale, a folk-horror story, a coming-of-age film, and a Greek tragedy.
Neofotistos Connects the Story to Queer Difference
In his director’s note, Neofotistos says The Boy With the Light-Blue Eyes was born from a deeply personal queer experience and the fear of feeling different.
He describes the film as a story about a closed, conservative society collapsing under its own beliefs and superstitions. The official site also says Petros’ difference becomes an act of resistance as his need for freedom grows.
That background gives the mask and the curse a direct emotional source. Petros is hidden because the village cannot accept what makes him different.
Jurassic Park Gave Him a Language for Wonder and Fear
The Jurassic Park connection is not about dinosaurs appearing in Neofotistos’ film.
It is about the kind of feeling Spielberg’s film created: amazement turning into danger, and a visual idea becoming frightening once people lose control of it.
In The Boy With the Light-Blue Eyes, the dangerous image is much smaller. It is not a dinosaur behind a fence. It is a boy’s uncovered face in a village that believes his eyes carry a curse.
The Film Premieres at SXSW London
The Boy With the Light-Blue Eyes is listed in the SXSW London 2026 program as a world premiere.
The festival page lists the film at 101 minutes, with screenings at Curzon Hoxton. Neofotistos’ official site lists it as a 99-minute 2026 feature and gives the first screening as Thursday, June 4, at 8:30 p.m., followed by another screening on Saturday, June 6, at 11 a.m.
The cast includes Giorgos Karydis as Petros, Pablo Soto as Aemon, Syrmo Keke as Lemonia, and Sofia Filippidou as Margarita. Neofotistos co-wrote the screenplay with Grigoris Skarakis, and Ioanna Bolomyti is listed among the producers.
The Production Crosses Several Countries
The film is a Greek production with several co-production partners.
Neofotistos’ official credits list Greece as the main production country, with Cyprus, North Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, and the United States involved as co-production partners.
The official site also lists Dimitsana, Arcadia, Greece, as the shooting location, with Djordje Arambasic as director of photography, Dafni Kalogianni as production designer, Panagiotis Angelopoulos as editor, and Christina Lardikou as costume designer.
The project also moved through several development and industry programs before reaching SXSW London, including Sarajevo Script Station, MFI Script2Film Workshop, First Film First, Thessaloniki Agora, CineLink Market, Les Arcs, and Cannes-related market programs.
That path fits the film’s unusual mix: a Greek mountain village, Evil Eye folklore, queer coming-of-age drama, folk horror, and an early cinematic spark that Neofotistos traces back to Spielberg’s Jurassic Park.