Crew
Director/Screenplay – Isaiah Saxon, Producers – Traci Carlson, Richard Peete, Isaiah Saxon & Jonathan Wang, Photography – Evan Prosofsky, Music – David Longstreth, Visual Effects Supervisor – Grant White, Visual Effects – Encyclopedia Pictura, King’s Ransom Media (Supervisor – Nicolaus Waetjen), Neon Robotic Visual Laboratories (Supervisor – Nathan Weiner) Selected Works, Viskefi & Xreality Studios (Supervisor – Ignacio Lacosta), Creatures – John Nolan Studio (Animatronics Supervisor – John Nolan), Production Design – Jason Kisvarday. Production Company – Neighborhood Watch/Year of the Rat/Encyclopedia Pictura/AGBO Films/Access Entertainment/IPR.VC.
Cast
Helena Zengel (Yuri), Willem Dafoe (Maxim), Emily Watson (Dasha), Finn Wolfhard (Petro), Razvan Stoica (Ivan), Carol Bors (Oleg), Andrei Antoniu Anghle (Vlad), David Andrei Baltatu (Gleb), Eduard Oancea (Pavel), Tomas Otto Ghela (Tudor), Eduard Ionut Cucu (Edi)
Plot
In a small traditional village on the island of Carpathia, Maxim trains the boys of the village to hunt the Ochi, creatures that live in the woods. After being taken on one such hunt, Maxim’s daughter Yuri comes across a baby Ochi caught in a trap. She is able to befriend it and brings it home where she bandages its wound. When she is spotted by her brother Petro, she flees, intending to take the Ochi back to its family. Maxim raises the boys in a hunt to find her. After the Ochi accidentally bites her, Yuri discovers that she can speak its language.
The Legend of Ochi was a directorial debut for former music video director Isaiah Saxon. For a debuting director, Saxon attracted some high-profile backing from brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, directors of Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), while the film was released through A24.
The plot for The Legend of Ochi is familiar if you have watched enough copies of E.T. – The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). There is the established trope of the child who bonds with the creature; their journey to help the creature get back home; and the pursuit by forces that want to imprison or kill it. The plot here treads a very familiar arc in that respect.
The Ochi – where the ‘ch’ is pronounced like the ‘tch’ in witch as in Otch-ee s though it sounded like ‘botch-ee’ – is a wonderful creation. It is brought to life primarily by animatronics, along with an array of CGI. There is really something quite sweet and tender to watching young Helena Zengel bond with the creature over a caterpillar and she learning to speak the Ochi language as they journey through the wilds together. It is the tenderness of the journey and the soft anthropomorphic emotion that Isaiah Saxon brings out among the Ochi creatures that makes the film its heart. The Legend of Ochi tugs and pulls at the heartstrings – but that isn’t meant as a criticism. The film also comes with some of the most ravishing and beautiful landscape photography.
The film also brings together a solid cast. There is Willem Dafoe on form as you expect him to be as the harsh father. Getting second billing behind Dafoe is Finn Wolfhard, known for tv’s Stranger Things (2016- ), who has become a breakout star, but he isn’t given much to do and is in a distinctly supporting role. Far more impressive is the great Emily Watson who plays Helena Zengel’s mother and brings to bear the considerable acting talent she has and of which the world gets to see too little.
(Nominee for Best Cinematography at this site’s Best of 2025 Awards).
Trailer here