Nine Days

Will lives in a house in the middle of the desert, watching the lives of people he has never met through their own eyes on a wall of old televisions. When one of them dies, candidates arrive for the vacancy: souls not yet born. Over nine days Will interviews them and will send one of them into life. The film is not interested in constructing an afterlife. It is interested in which quality makes a life worth living: Will tests the candidates on endurance, honesty and their response to pain, and is not sure his own criteria are right. The farewell gift he gives to those he rejects is the film's best idea. The form is low budget and enclosed: one house, a few rooms, sand and old VHS tapes. The fantastical premise is never explained, only accepted as a rule. Edson Oda wrote and directed. It is his first feature and screened at Sundance in 2020. Winston Duke plays Will, Zazie Beetz one of the candidates and Benedict Wong his assistant. Who it is for: viewers who like concept-driven independent science fiction and slow, thoughtful films. Who it is not for: anyone wanting speed and explanation. The film does not argue about its own rules and pushes the emotional register hard in its last section.