LEGEND OF OCHI, THE
(director/writer: Isaiah Saxon; cinematographer: Evan Prosofsky; editor: Paul Rogers; music: David Longstreth; cast: Helena Zengel (Yuri), Finn Wolfhard (Petro), Willem Dafoe (Maxim), Emily Watson (Dasha), Razvan Stoica (Ivan), Carol Bors (Oleg), David Andrei Baltatu (Gleb), Andrei Antoniu Anghel (Vlad), Stefan Burlacu (Victor), Eduard Mihail Oancea (Pavel), Tomas Otto Chela (Tudor); Runtime: 96; MPAA Rating: PG; producers: Jonathan Wang, Isaiah Saxon, Richard Peete, Traci Carison; A24; 2025-USA/UK/Finland)
“Enchanting but nonsensical family adventure/fantasy film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Isaiah Saxon, the former music video director, who made one of a Björk performance, makes his feature film debut with this enchanting but nonsensical family adventure/fantasy film. It reminded me of the 1980s sci-fi film ET.
It offers a positive message about never accepting a myth as the truth unless you know for yourself if it’s true. I wasn’t impressed by its undeveloped story as much as I was by its creative puppets, David Longstreth’s snappy score, Evan Prosofsky’s eerie visuals, and by how its CGIs were used with its animatronics.
It’s set on the fictional island of Carpathia, on the Black Sea, in some unnamed Eastern European country, in a remote mountain village that fears the Ochi creatures because of the myth handed down to them that they are supposedly savage beasts. The unseen by the villagers Ochis are furry orange-tinged monkey-like creatures, who have big ears and large dark eyes. They live in isolation in the woods, in the surrounding Carpathian mountains.
It was filmed in Romania, but the language spoken by the villagers seems to be gibberish. The Ochis, on the other hand, talk in high-pitched siren-like voices, and when speaking together they make musical sounds that leave mystical messages.
The 15-year-old Yuri (Helena Zengel), the narrator, is a timid, rebellious, heavy metal fan, who lives on a modest farm without a computer. Her missing mother long ago abandoned the family. Thereby Yuri reluctantly stays with her arrogant, religious, warrior-like father Maxim (Willem Dafoe) and her three years ago adopted 18-year-old orphan brother Petro (Finn Wolfhard). Yuri resents her dad’s belligerent nature and domineering attitude toward her, and that he trains seven adolescent boys in the village to kill the so-called village foes–the Ochis. Petro tries to mediate a truce between father and daughter, but to no avail.
At night, the men and the seven boys hunt the Ochi in the mountain woods.
A male baby Ochi is separated from her mother, and Yuri finds it in a bear trap in the woods. After she mends its wounded leg and makes a warm connection with it, she brings the peaceful baby Ochi back to her loving family.
While in the woods Yuri meets the recluse Dasha (Emily Watson), who turns out to be her missing mother. She explains why she had to run away. Which is easy to understand when we see the bombastic Maxim dressed in metal armor as he goes to retrieve his daughter, who disobeyed him by going into the woods to look for her mother.
It played at the Sundance Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 4/26/2025 GRADE: B-
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