“My Grandmother Told Me Not to Bring Home a Blue-Eyed Wife. But I’m a Gay Guy”

'The Boy With the Light-Blue Eyes' -

Courtesy of Argonauts/SXSW London

Greek director Thanasis Neofotistos on 'The Boy With the Light-Blue Eyes,' his SXSW London debut — a folk horror allegory about otherness, queer identity and the randomness of being born different.

June 2, 2026

In the remote mountain village at the center of Thanasis Neofotistos’ moody debut feature, the superstitious locals have a chant: “Nay Evil, yay Good!” It’s a ritual meant to ward off strangers — and in The Boy With the Light-Blue Eyes the stranger in question is a boy whose unusually blue eyes mark him as a threat to everything the village holds sacred.