If the trailer for A24’s upcoming film The Legend of Ochi is anything to go by, writer-director Isaiah Saxon’s film may immediately leap into the annals of Kid-Friendly Films What Make Us All Sob Hopelessly (sharing space with The Neverending Story and The Iron Giant, among so many others). As is the case with so many A24 releases, the film stars Willem Dafoe; here be plays a curiously dressed man who seems to be training children to face whatever lives in the woods on their “small island in the Black Sea.”
But the creature Yuri (Helena Zengel) finds in the woods is anything but terrifying. Small, scared, and absolutely adorable, it clearly needs her help. The brief synopsis says:
In a remote northern village, a young girl, Yuri, is raised to never go outside after dark and to fear the reclusive forest creatures known as the ochi. When a baby ochi is left behind by its pack, she embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to reunite it with its family.
I have seen mere seconds of footage of this tiny creature and I am incredibly invested in its safe return to its family. It is unclear whether the rest of the cast—which includes Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard and Chernobyl’s Emily Watson—feels similarly, or is too brainwashed by Willem Dafoe to lend Yuri and the ochi a helping hand.
Director Saxon is making his feature film debut with The Legend of Ochi, but has previously directed music videos for the likes of Bjokr (“Wanderlust”) and Grizzly Bear (“Knife”). He is also one of the three filmmakers behind the animation studio Encyclopedia Pictura.
The Legend of Ochi is in theaters February 28, 2025.
