A knockout feature directorial debut from Edson Oda, Nine Days is an ethereal and evocative film about the meaning of life - elevated by a phenomenal performance from Winston Duke.
"We are born, we live, and we die. Before we can get on that particular merry-go-round, however, we must first be interviewed. The interrogator is tall, quiet, fastidious, well-dressed. Small granny spectacles perch on his nose as he asks questions of those who sit before him. And when he’s not doing that, he’s reviewing former 'vacancies' that he’s filled, watching on a bank of monitors displaying numerous lives in progress. If we are lucky, we are chosen to go forth, from cradle to grave. If not, perhaps the man will do what he can to give us one fleeting moment of happiness before we disappear into the ether.
"This is the premise of Nine Days, Edson Oda’s affecting portrait of a prelife purgatory. What might seem, at first sneer, like just a hipster’s notion of eternity as an artisanal, analog-tech ghost town eventually reveals a deeper purpose, and a determination to move past any too-cool-for-film-school superficiality. A Japanese Brazilian filmmaker with a background in commercials, Oda is taking big philosophical swings with his debut: What are the nature of souls? Is a life something to be earned, rather than gifted? Does the beauty of being human outweigh the pain of existence, or do these two elements symbiotically feed off each other, yin to yang? Who are we, before we are anything at all?" - Rolling Stone
Printer-friendly version
