Nine Days is the feature film directorial debut for Edson Oda, a Japanese Brazilian writer/director based in Los Angeles, and what a debut it was! The film took the Sundance Film Festival by storm, snagging the coveted Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for a U.S. Drama in the process. I don’t want to speak too soon, but something tells me we will be hearing Edson Oda’s name plenty in the near future.
The story-line for the existential fantasy drama is described to perfection by the Sundance Institute below:
“What if being born is not the beginning but the goal? In a house distant from the reality we know, a reclusive man named Will interviews prospective candidates—personifications of human souls—for the privilege he once had: to be born. Five contenders emerge. During the course of nine days, Will tests each of them, but he can choose only one. The victor will be rewarded with a coveted opportunity to become a newborn in the real world, while the others will cease to exist—nine days is everything they’ll ever experience.
Supernatural, metaphysical, and packed with the deepest, most human emotions, this spiritual child of Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry will hit you in the head and the heart. Propelled by an extraordinary performance from Winston Duke as Will and buoyed by a stunning supporting cast of highly accomplished actors, Nine Days marks not only the feature debut but the cinematic birth of writer-director Edson Oda, a singular, visionary artist.”
Filmmaking is an art form, and for me when you leave the theater feeling like you experienced something that changed you in some way, that really is what it’s all about. From Mandalay Pictures, the cast includes Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgård, Tony Hale, and David Rysdahl.
Sony Pictures Classics is set to release Nine Days on January 22nd, 2021. Watch the trailer below.