The Legend of Ochi, written and directed by Isaiah Saxon, is a lovely adventure built on imagination and skill. It certainly feels like the kind of film that will last a good long while. Short on dialogue and long on style, it tells of the small population in a village on the island of Carpathia: they live in fear of the Ochi, an apparently vicious form of primate haunting the nearby forest. Willem Dafoe plays Maxim, a warrior elder who’s been gifted the village’s children and will train them to fight the dreaded beasts. Among them is Petro (Finn Wolfhard) and Maxim’s own daughter Yuri (Helena Zengel). When Yuri comes across an injured baby ochi, she decides to care for the creature and take it back to its home. To do so, she must run from Maxim and his militaristic ways.
It’s a fairly common tale as family sagas go, but Saxon is clever to complicate it with an estranged mother (the great Emily Watson) who’s determined to research and empathize with the Ochi and relentless (and relentlessly beautiful) natural setting that is equal-parts enchanting and foreboding. Here we have an aesthetic informed by seemingly the entire history of cinema: there’s matte paintings utilized to enrich the landscape; puppetry to operate and animate the titular creatures; even computer graphics to refine the frame where needed. Saxon and his colleagues Daren Rabinovitch and Sean Hellfritsch make up Encyclopedia Pictura. The trio is responsible for some of the 2000s’ more indelible music videos; that trippy, handmade feel exists in The Legend of Ochi as well.
Zengel does well as the lead, though she’s significantly upstaged by the several performers operating the baby ochi. It’s a true feat of collaboration. Watson makes the biggest impression among the human cast, portraying an empathetic sort with the hardest edges. She’s truly a performer of such uniqueness, such specificity that she’s taken for granted. But there is only one Emily Watson: here is a role that could easily be derivative or convenient, but her participation ensures that will not happen.
The Legend of Ochi is a very simple narrative, at first glance almost to a fault. Subsequent viewings reveal layers to characters and scenes that deepen the overall experience. Wolfhard’s Petro comes to mind, an adopted son-of-sorts who’s learned bravery comes in direct opposition to his inherent goodness. The young actor plays it fascinatingly well in only a scant amount of screentime. There’s also a brutal, funny confrontation between Dafoe and Watson that feels oddly lived-in and real.
Saxon is a confident filmmaker with a clear eye. This goes a long way: it’s one thing to create a world, quite another to make that world feel like it’s been there all along, just waiting to be discovered. The Legend of Ochi plays as if it’s always been around, and we’re happy to have finally discovered it.
The Legend of Ochi is now in limited release and expands wide on April 25.
