‘Fauda’ Star Laetitia Eido to Lead Alia Azamat Ashkenazi’s Historical Drama ‘Children of Nowhere’ (EXCLUSIVE)

French actress Laëtitia Eïdo, whose credits include “Fauda,” “Liaison” and “Elyas,” has signed on to star in the upcoming feature film “Children of Nowhere” as a civil servant dispatched to enforce a controversial French relocation program on Réunion Island in the 1960s. The film is inspired by true events.

Directed by Alia Azamat Ashkenazi, a two-time United Nations Award winner, the film explores the haunting legacy of a real-life government scheme that displaced thousands of children from La Réunion to rural France under false pretenses.

Set across two timelines in the 1960s and the 1980s, the story follows Nathan, a young ex-con who returns to the island in search of the parents who gave him away as well as Chantal, his orphaned girlfriend and a fellow victim of the program, now working on an exposé to uncover its disturbing truths. Eïdo’s character Briance is the French official who once orchestrated the relocations and now seeks redemption.

The script is written by Ashkenazi and Alan J. Robert, who is a native of Réunion Island. It is currently among the highest-rated scripts on The Black List, being featured twice as the “BlackList Weekend Read.”

“I was unaware of the ‘Children of Creuse’ tragedy before reading the script,” said Eïdo. “Alia’s powerful vision and profoundly human screenplay revealed this hidden era of history to me — a film that exposes the wounds of colonialism through both intimate drama and sweeping historical truth. It moved me deeply, and I feel honored to bring Briance to life under the guidance of a director with such rare sensitivity and courage.”

“Laëtitia brings extraordinary emotional intelligence and humanity to her roles, and her portrayal of Briance captures the tension between duty and compassion at the heart of this story,” said Ashkenazi. “ ‘Children of Nowhere’ is a film about what it takes to hold a child — and what happens when the state believes it can do it better. Though rooted in France’s past, it echoes the recurring tragedy of forced assimilation — from the Stolen Generations in Australia to the Indigenous residential schools of Canada, to today’s mass transfer of Ukrainian children by Russia.”

Uzbekistan-born Ashkenazi, who has been in political exile from Russia since 2014, is rooted in the theater and documentary world. Her previous narrative work includes the featurette “Esther’s Choice,” starring François Arnaud, and a political thriller “The Russian Adoption,” co-written with Alexander Goldfarb.

Eïdo is best known internationally for her breakout role as Dr. Shirin El Abed in Netflix’s hit “Fauda” and recently starred in “Elyas” with Roschdy Zem. She featured as co-lead in Apple TV’s “Liaison” opposite Vincent Cassel and Eva Green, and has appeared in Terrence Malick’s upcoming “The Way of the Wind,” alongside Joseph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley and Mark Rylance.

A co-production between HighBar Films (U.S.) and Tiktak Production (France), the film features an international ensemble cast, with dialogue in half English and French. HighBar Films is a private equity–backed film studio founded by Ashkenazi to develop, finance, and produce prestige cinema with international scope. Tiktak Production is led by Laurent Médéa and based on Réunion Island, and its latest titles include the Oscar-shortlisted “Sweet Dreams” by Ena Sendijarević and “Long Gone Heroes,” starring Ben Kingsley and Guy Pearce.

Production is slated to begin in 2026, with filming on location in La Réunion.