By Kurt Jensen , OSV News
Though it has the relationship between a teen girl and a cuddly creature at its core, The Legend of Ochi (A24) is not a sunny children’s movie. In fact, this fantasy tale is a sort of infernal machine of confounding dark imagery, threats of violence and a mixed moral about honouring your parents while respecting nature.
Writer-director Isaiah Saxon, making his feature film debut, sets his story on the fictional Black Sea island of Carpathia, a land of idyllic farm villages, steep mountains, feral boars and dense forests. On the fringes of this world dwell the Ochi, misunderstood simians – a combination of gorilla, baboon and howler monkey – regarded as a threat to livestock and agriculture.
Humans seek to shoot and ensnare the Ochi.
Adolescent Yuri (Helena Zengel) lives on Carpathia with her father, Maxim (Willem Dafoe), and adopted brother, Petro (Finn Wolfhard). Yuri’s mother, Dasha (Emily Watson), has moved away and lives on her own.
Clad in a loopy version of medieval armour, Maxim prepares Petro and other local boys to launch nighttime Ochi hunts. The moody Yuri is excluded from this activity and only yearns to see her mom.
Yuri eventually runs across a tiny Ochi (a colourful furry puppet resembling a Furby from the 1990s) caught in one of her father’s traps. Predictably, they bond at once, subsequently learning each other’s language.
Now caring more about her new pal than anyone else, Yuri leaves Dad a note that reads “I don’t believe what you say about anything,” and runs away. Her goals are to reunite the diminutive beast with his community and then enjoy a reunion of her own with the skeptical, very independent Dasha.
It’s a perilous escapade, one that requires skill and bravery on Yuri’s part. At journey’s end, neither the gruff Dasha nor the gentle, family-oriented Ochis turn out to be what Yuri was initially expecting.
Early on, there’s a scene of worship at a Russian Orthodox-style church. But this aspect of life on Carpathia is not delved into any further.
With cozy tropes reminiscent of How to Train Your Dragon and E.T., the picture is nonetheless set within an environment more redolent of Beowulf. That makes it too menacing for little kids but may give teens a few frissons of pleasant fear. Their parents, on the other hand, will likely have a different reaction to the script’s momentary descents into vulgarity.
The film contains intense action sequences, brief gore and two uses of crude language. The OSV News classification is A-II – adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG – parental guidance suggested. Some material may be inappropriate for children.