Film still of The Killing of a sacred deer © RR
The Killing of a Sacred Deer : Lanthimos delves even further into fantasy
In the art world, strain and pressure stimulate creativity. The crisis in Greece over the last few years has given us the Greek Weird Wave, a generation of talented and over-the-top film directors. Yorgos Lanthimos is without doubt the master. The director has been invited to Cannes twice and has gone home with an award each time. He received the Un Certain Regard Award in 2009 for Dogtooth, followed by the Jury Prize in 2015 for The Lobster.
This year, Yorgos Lanthimos is back In Competition with The Killing of a Sacred Deer. The director was inspired by the classical Greek author Euripides to tell the story of two doctors, Steven and Anna (Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman), and their two teenage children. Steven decides to take care of a young man who just lost his father, but when the young man is brought into the family, he becomes threatening, thus driving his mentor into making an unthinkable sacrifice.
The mystery surrounding the film has been almost complete. The day before the first press conference, there was still no movie trailer, only two photos of Colin Farrell in an oversized world. The press was hopping up and down with impatience.
In the meantime, Yorgos Lanthimos seems to be continuing with the animal metaphor, two years after The Lobster. Will The Killing of a Sacred Deer be even more disconcerting? Colin Farrell, who is working with the director for the second time, confides that he felt nauseous while reading the screenplay. During an interview with Indiewire, he warned that the film was going to "make The Lobster seem like a kids' movie."
After filming ended, Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman hardly had time to breathe. A few weeks later, they found themselves on the film set of Sofia Coppola for The Beguiled, also presented In Competition.
