The Legend of Ochi, written and directed by Isaiah Saxon, is a lovely adventure built on imagination and skill. It certainly feels like the kind of film that will last a good long while. Short on dialogue and long on style, it tells of the small population in a village on the island of Carpathia: they live in fear of the Ochi, an apparently vicious form of primate haunting the nearby forest. Willem Dafoe plays Maxim, a warrior elder who’s been gifted the village’s children and will train them to fight the dreaded beasts. Among them is Petro (Finn Wolfhard) and Maxim’s own daughter Yuri (Helena Zengel). When Yuri comes across an injured baby ochi, she decides to care for the creature and take it back to its home. To do so, she must run from Maxim and his militaristic ways.

It’s a fairly common tale as family sagas go,...