Kingdom Archives - celebpeek

Fun Trailer for ‘Sirocco & the Kingdom of Winds’ Psychedelic Fairy Tale

by Alex Billington
November 16, 2025
Source: YouTube

“Let’s go get your sister!” Check out this funky & colorful official trailer for the peculiar French animated film titled Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds, directed by Benoît Chieux. This actually opened in the US last year thanks to GKids – and originally premiered back in 2023 at the Annecy Film Festival. However, I’m just now catching up with it and it looks crazy cool. Especially for animation geeks. “A psychedelic fairy tale years in the making comes from the imagination of director Benoît Chieux. With captivating creatures and a vibrant Seussian world, Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds is a kaleidoscopic fantasy adventure bursting with charm and wonder.” Juliette and her sister Carmen are transported to the Kingdom of Winds after finding an enchanted book. They are also transformed into cats. Juliette causes an accident that upsets the Kingdom’s locals, leading its ruler to give Juliette to the songstress Selma, while also sentencing Carmen to marry his son. Will they find their way out? This looks super wacky and weird and tons of fun. Get a look.

Official trailer (+ poster) for Benoît Chieux’s film Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds, from YouTube:

Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds Trailer

Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds Poster

One day, the adventurous Juliette and her sister Carmen find an enchanted toy and get swept away into the Kingdom of the Winds. They are transformed into cats and find themselves in a fantastical new world full of flying divas, technicolor dragons, and other mind-melting creations. When Juliette causes an accident that draws the ire of the local inhabitants, the Mayor gives Juliette to the beautiful songstress Selma and sentences Carmen to marry his son as punishment. The sisters must find a way to escape before the wedding bells ring, but the key to their journey home lies with Sirocco, the mysterious wizard feared for his ferocious storms. Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds is directed by French animation filmmaker Benoît Chieux, director of Aunt Hilda! and Melting Heart Cake previously. The screenplay is written by Alain Gagnol and Benoît Chieux. Produced by Ron Dyens. This initially premiered at the 2023 Annecy Film Festival and was already released in France in late 2023. GKids already released Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds in US theaters in August 2024 last year. For more info on how to watch it, visit their official site.

Find more posts in: Animation, Foreign Films, To Watch, Trailer

Vienna-based sales outlet Square Eyes has secured international rights to “The Kartli Kingdom,” directed by Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel. The film is set to world premiere in the International Competition at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), taking place Nov. 13-23.

“Kartli” refers both to Georgia’s medieval kingdom and a Tbilisi sanatorium sheltering refugees from the 1990s war in Abkhazia, meant as temporary but lasting 30 years. The collapsing building became a recreated “country”: a farm, garden, terraces, and rooms where old VHS tapes revive memories of Abkhazia, their lost paradise. Through Tamuna, Irma and others, the film reveals the exile’s trauma and shared resilience. Even if time seems frozen in Kartli’s walls, nothing stays the same.

“Our film narrates a community’s story through the shelter of Kartli: past, present and imagined future, lending gentleness, violence, sadness, memories, and humor,” Kalandadze and Pebrel commented. “These layers of time merge in editing, combining image and sound materials. Memories, words and tales of Kartli’s past shape its inhabitants’ lives, forming foundational myths. These stories, like an underground stream, resurface during conversations, interrupting scenes we filmed. Archival footage adds bursts of collective memory, showing the 1992 war’s impact on the community.”

“We love how the film gives us a glimpse inside the walls of the Kartli sanatorium, where the collective memory of the 1992 war in Abkhazia and the current lives of the residents mix into a touching and poetic documentary,” stated Wouter Jansen, CEO of Square Eyes. “The mix of these two narratives makes the film a perfect match for our catalog.”

“The Kartli Kingdom” is produced by Ketevan Kipiani for Giorgia’s Sakdoc Film and Jean-Baptiste Bonnet for Habilis Productions in France. Square Eyes is in charge of world sales.