The legend of Ochi movie review

So far, A24 has rarely been associated with children's and family films. So far, the indie studio has stood primarily for exceptional independent and genre cinema for adults with titles such as “The Lighthouse” or “Everything EveryWhere”. But with increasing popularity, A24 also seems to want to expand its target groups and rejuvenate. “”The legend of Ochi“Is one of the first attempts to get a family-friendly film for the in-house portfolio-and the undertaking has succeeded. Author and director Isaiah Saxon presents with his cinema debut an atmospheric, image-fitting fantasy adventure, where you can hardly get enough.

“The legend of Ochi” plays on the island of Carpathia, where Yuri (Germany's shooting star Helena Zengel, “SystemSprenger”) lives with her father (Willem Dafoe). Yuri and the other children and adolescents are constantly sharpened that the so -called ochis, small, furry beings that are up to mischief in nature are dangerous. However, when the girl finds an injured Ochi baby in the forest, she begins to question the shower stories and to be tied up against the rules of her community. The teenager Büxt and embarks on a trip to bring the Ochi back to his family …

A brief contemplation reveals that the premise of “The Legend of Ochi” has significant parallels to “et – the extraterrestrial”. The fact that Isaiah Saxon's fantasy film will now achieve a similar cult status to Steven Spielberg's classic is of course not to be expected. Perhaps there is a little lack of thematic originality. However, the two films take little in creative detailed and love for the magic tricks that can be done in the cinema. “The Legend of Ochi” inspires primarily because it remains consistently suitable for family, but still is not afraid of the nasty and threatening. In addition, there is aesthetic crankiness and idiosyncrasy, for which many A24 works are known.

The heroine trip of Yuri and her fluffy friend loves the strange and anachronistic. That means: Again and again elements are combined that do not seem to match at all. A break lurks in the first impressions of the rough wilderness of the island. As you experience at the beginning, most people are pursuing agriculture here. The camera is currently watching a horse car in a field, as a car suddenly races past. Modern has arrived into this world and whirls every time.

Willem Dafoe as a militant hunter

At night the men in the forest go on an ochi hunt. Your leader: Willem Dafoe (“Poor Things”) as a patriarch, who does not take the rifle to the field, as the others do, but with a spear or ax and ancient armor parts. These weird impressions falling from the present have method. Such anachronism invite you to ask yourself how that can be: Why do people still stuck in ancient violent spirals, demarcations and ways of thinking?

As you know it from many children's and family films, this is very didactically raised and pointed to morality. All sorts of stirring should help. Especially towards the end, the eyes in front of the camera have to be wet to tease the big emotions out. And then the ochis look so cute! Actually, the film would not have had such tricks at all. You have already been touched by this odyssey by forests, water and rock, even without such thick-applied tear gland effects. Not because “the legend of Ochi” wants to conjure up the meaning of family again, one of his more superficial punch lines, but because he tries for a long time with such small, delicate gestures on a border cancellation.

Isaiah Saxon's film positions itself against militarism and a society that wants to divide the world into good and evil solely. If Willem dafoe breaks up with his small army of child soldiers, these are grotesque, but also disturbing images. Already at a young age, the youngsters were brought up to the weapon service and after strict enemy images. In the upgrade debates and geopolitical conflicts of the present, these pictures look all the more darker and uncomfortable in their reflections.

This criticism is embedded in a questioning of the human role in nature. Actually, people are only at the beginning to understand which network they exist in and which communications between living beings and the environment prevail there. It is always about the possibility of a common language. Loud and music should create an understanding of each other. Even if this process is associated with pain. A symbolic bite wound even briefly tips into the body horror. The whole body finally becomes an interface and a medium to approach the alleged enemy. Suddenly you can see that you don't differ as much as you often talk to yourself.

Image power without many words

Saxon's trick is that he also finds the aesthetic equivalents for such ideas. Above all, his film is looking for closeness to the touch. The talented exploring of the world is translated into enormously sensual pictures. And where, if not on the big screen, all the hidden textures and details of skin, fur, wood, moss and rock can be viewed so well? You would like to use the pictures yourself and touch all the surfaces that speak your very own cinema language. “The legend of Ochi” could also work as a silent film. One could completely delete the remaining dialogues and still understand the messages.

This is also thanks to the entire trick technique that combines digital and practical effects virtuoso. Powerful pictures of foggy forests and mountains meet painted, artificially designed elements and backgrounds. Sometimes all these mythical and mystically charged natural spaces “The Green Knight” (also from A24) are reminiscent of “The Green Knight”. In order to bring the ochis to life, the main thing has been put on puppet playing – and it is astonishing how real these beings appear when they interact with human counterparts.

Conclusion: May the narrative transitions between the stations and the characters be constructed somewhat bumpy: it is incredible what was brought to the screen with a budget of only about $ 10 million. In his debut, Isaiah Saxon tells a timeless history of adventure about the relationship between man and nature and violence against the stranger. “The legend of Ochi” is primarily a feast for the eyes and one of the strongest family films in recent years.