After taking his eccentricity into outer space with “The Empire,” Bruno Dumont appears to be returning to something much smaller and more tender with “Red Rocks,” his new coming-of-age film that premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
In some ways, the setup almost sounds like a more heartfelt cousin to Dumont’s “P’tit Quinquin”: children running wild through a distinctly French landscape, rivalries and social dynamics playing out largely from their perspective, but without the dark murder mystery, grotesque comedy, and absurdist streak that defined that series. Instead, “Red Rocks” centers on the comparatively innocent emotional chaos of childhood—friendship, jealousy, competition, and first crushes.
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Set on the French Riviera, the film follows two groups of children whose favorite pastime is jumping from the red rocks overlooking the Mediterranean. At the center is Géo, a boy barely five years old whose summer becomes a formative collision of friendship, rivalry, and the first confusing stirrings of attraction.
The film stars Kaylon Lancel as Géo alongside Kelsie Verdeilles, Louise Podolski, Mohamed Coly, Alessandro Piquera, and Meryl Pires.
Here’s the official synopsis:
On the French Riviera, two gangs of kids compete in their favorite game: jumping from the red rocks of the Mediterranean. Géo, barely five years old, discovers over the course of a summer a world where friendship mixes with rivalry, and the first stirrings of the heart become a source of tension.
“Red Rocks” continues Dumont’s unpredictable career-long movement between austere drama, deadpan comedy, the sacred, and the absurd. His earliest films, including “The Life Of Jesus” and “Humanity,” established him as a major French filmmaker, while more recent works like “Slack Bay,” “Joan Of Arc,” and “France” have pushed those interests into stranger and increasingly comic territory. “P’tit Quinquin” may be the closest reference point here, but “Red Rocks” seems to strip away that project’s murder, grotesquerie, and dark absurdity for something gentler and more emotionally direct.
That makes the film another sharp turn after “The Empire,” Dumont’s sci-fi satire that took those comic impulses to their most outlandish extreme. “Red Rocks,” by contrast, appears modest, sun-soaked, and focused on the outsized emotions of being very young.
Les Films du Losange will release “Red Rocks” in French theaters on September 23. No U.S. release has been announced yet. Watch the official French trailer below.
