THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER

Steven (Colin Farrell) is a surgeon, married, father of two – a life on calm, affluent tracks. At the edge of this life, Martin (Barry Keoghan) keeps appearing, a teenager whose closeness Steven tolerates and even seeks out, without explaining why. But Martin’s demands grow more insistent, and eventually he confronts Steven with a choice: he must kill a member of his family. Otherwise, one after another, they will first lose the ability to walk, then to eat, and finally bleed from the eyes until they die – as atonement for the death of Martin’s father. In “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” (Ireland/United Kingdom 2017), Yorgos Lanthimos tells a modern version of ancient revenge.

The film loosely follows Euripides’ “Iphigenia in Aulis” and, after “The Lobster”, is Lanthimos’ second English-language work. In competition at Cannes 2017, Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou won the award for best screenplay. In 2017, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in the Closing Night section.

Shown at the 2017 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2017 · Film Archive