French actress Laetitia Eide, whose credits include “Fauda,” “Liaison,” and “Elias,” has signed on to star in the new feature film “Children of Nowhere,” in which she plays a civil servant sent to carry out a controversial French emigration plan on Réunion Island in the 1960s. This movie is inspired by real events.
The film, directed by two-time United Nations Award winner Alia Azamat Ashkenazi, depicts the haunting legacy of a real-life government program that evacuated thousands of children from La Réunion to the French countryside under false pretenses.
Spanning two timelines, the 1960s and 1980s, the story follows Nathan, a young ex-con who returns to the island in search of the parents who abandoned him, and Chantal, his orphaned girlfriend and fellow victim of the program, who are now working on an expose that will reveal the disturbing truth. Ade plays Briance, a French official who once orchestrated the relocation and is now seeking redemption.
The screenplay was written by Ashkenazi and Réunion Island native Alan J. Robert. It is currently one of Blacklist’s most acclaimed screenplays and has been featured twice as a “Blacklist Weekend Read.”
“I didn’t know about the tragedy in ‘Cruise’s Children’ until I read the script,” Ade says. “Aria’s powerful vision and humane script revealed to me a hidden period in history. This is a film that reveals the scars of colonialism through both intimate drama and broader historical truth. I was deeply moved, and I am honored to bring Bryans to life under the guidance of a director of such unique sensitivity and courage.”
“Letizia brings extraordinary emotional intelligence and humanity to the role, and her role as Brians perfectly captures the tension between duty and compassion at the heart of this story,” Ashkenazy said. “Children of Nowhere is a film about what it takes to have a child and what happens when a nation believes it can do it better. Rooted in France’s past, it also reflects the repeated tragedies of forced assimilation, from Australia’s Stolen Generations to Canada’s Indigenous residential schools to today’s Russia’s mass deportation of Ukrainian children.”
Born in Uzbekistan, Ashkenazy has been a political exile from Russia since 2014 and has roots in the world of theater and documentary. Her previous narrative works include the feature film Esther’s Choice, starring Francois Arnault, and the political thriller The Russian Adoption, co-written with Alexander Goldfarb.
Eid broke out as Dr. Shirin El Abed in the Netflix hit Fauda and is best known internationally for her recent starring roles in Roshdi Zem and Elias. She co-starred with Vincent Cassel and Eva Green in Apple TV’s Liaison, and also appears in Terrence Malick’s upcoming movie The Wind, alongside Joseph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley, and Mark Rylance.
A co-production between HighBar Films (USA) and Tiktak Production (France), the film features an international ensemble cast, with dialogue half in English and half in French. Khyber Films is a private equity-backed film studio founded by Ashkenazy to develop, finance, and produce premium films with an international scope. Tiktak Production is led by Laurent Medea and based on Réunion Island, and its latest films include Oscar-nominated Sweet Dreams, directed by Ena Sendiyarevic, and Long Gone Heroes, starring Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce.
Production is expected to begin in 2026, with filming to take place in La Réunion.
