In a remote village on the Black Sea island of Carpathia, the locals have hunted a reclusive, primate-like species known as the Ochi for generations. A fanatical farmer and hunter named Maxim, Willem Dafoe, leads a hunting party that is mostly made up of young boys, and his own daughter, Yuri, along with his reserved son, Petro, Finn Wolfhard. The terrain around them is harsh and sculpted by sea winds, and the hunt is treated almost as a rite—a way to prove loyalty, discipline, and strength to a group that follows Maxim unquestioningly. The village’s daily rhythms are soundtracked by the hiss of the wind, the creak of wooden traps, and the occasional, unsettling call of the Ochi.
During one of these hunts, a baby Ochi becomes lost and injured. Yuri discovers it and quietly frees its leg from a trap, then treats it back at her home in secret. The creature proves sapient—the spark in its eyes and the way it responds to her pleas and to her pet caterpillar mark it as more than a mindless quarry. When Yuri asks it not to eat the caterpillar, the Ochi does not, and this small act of trust anchors her decision to safeguard the baby and try to return it to its family. She resolves to go, even as Maxim’s rules and the group’s obedience pull in the opposite direction. Petro, meanwhile, watches with a wary detachment, realizing that the chain of obedience to his father leaves little room for genuine trust or cooperation with his sister.
Maxim soon discovers signs that Yuri has left, including traces of the Ochi in her room. He rallies the hunting party to track her down, convinced that the Ochi have abducted her, and the hunt becomes a project to reassert control over the family and the group. The tension within the family fractures the already delicate balance, as the father’s militant worldview clashes with the siblings’ growing sense of autonomy and empathy.
Across the mountains and forests, Petro quietly steps away from Maxim’s orbit to seek out their mother, Dasha, who lives in a cabin in the mountains. Dasha, played by Emily Watson, left Maxim after a deep disagreement about the Ochi and has since carved out a life apart from the hunter’s world. She has learned to live with danger and to read the language of the wild in a way that fascinates Petro, even as their reunion is tempered by old wounds and unspoken grievances.
Yuri’s journey leads her into a supermarket she was never allowed to enter before, the location charged with danger and possibility. With the baby Ochi in tow, the scene explodes into chaos, and Yuri ends up stealing a car in a panic after being bitten by the baby, injuring her arm in the process. They take refuge near a pond, where Yuri gradually discovers she can understand and reproduce the Ochi’s vocalizations. The growing bond between girl and creature is underscored by the realization that language—not venom or fear—binds the Ochi to one another, and to a broader world they are only beginning to inhabit.
Yuri is eventually found by Dasha, who treats her injuries with a knowledge of the Ochi that sits alongside her grief. At Dasha’s home, she uses the blood of Carpathian brown bats—an immune reservoir to the Ochi venom—to heal, a reminder of the costs of living in this dangerous landscape. Dasha also explains that it wasn’t venom that let Yuri understand the Ochi’s language; she had shown it to Yuri when Yuri was a baby, and her studies of the creatures’ speech, which echoes music, opened the door to real communication. The two women lament the deep, almost spiritual connection the Ochi share with one another, a bond that seems almost unreachable to their own human lives. Yuri leaves in anger, frustrated by Dasha’s refusal to help her return the baby Ochi to its family, and by the fear that humans will reject or kill the infant if it comes too close to human settlements.
Maxim and his group converge on the mountain cabin after Petro reaches out, and Dasha’s maps of the Ochi’ territory become a flashpoint. The exchange grows heated: Maxim tries to insist that he still loves his family and means well, while Dasha rebukes his militant methods and his ongoing indoctrination of the children. The conversation turns violent as she drives him from the house, only stopping when Maxim’s hunters—armed and ready—raid her storage space in search of the Ochi territory’s maps. The clash exposes the fractures within Maxim’s world and makes clear that Yuri’s flight carries heavier consequences than simple rebellion.
Yuri, meanwhile, manages to reunite with the baby Ochi by using the creatures’ language, and the two share a quiet moment as they camp for the night. The baby speaks of longing for its mother, while Yuri confesses that she herself has complicated feelings about her own parents. Dasha begins to see the shift in her daughter and the toll of Maxim’s influence; she regrets the distance that has grown between the family and the Ochi, and she decides to seek out Yuri to help her navigate this fragile coexistence.
Maxim’s authority is tested when Petro, now disillusioned by his father’s rigidity, stands up and confronts him. He strips away his ceremonial armor to swim, signaling a longing for freedom and for a path that doesn’t require blindly following a leader who sees others only as means to an end. The family’s fates collide as Yuri and the baby Ochi begin the journey toward a final, shared home.
In the caves, the tension between outsiders and the Ochi comes to a head. Maxim searches for Yuri while the Ochi respond with a protective warning. A trap ensnares Maxim’s leg, forcing him to confront his vulnerability, and Yuri, using the Ochi language, calls for understanding and trust rather than force. She apologizes for having rejected Maxim’s gift to her, and she explains that his gesture came from a place of trying to connect, even if his approach was flawed. The baby Ochi interacts with Maxim, and the two begin to bridge the gap between species, a moment of tentative peace that hints at possible coexistence.
The five hunters positioned on a nearby cliff mount their rifles, their tension channeled into a dangerous standoff. Yet Dasha’s flute and Yuri’s fluent use of Ochi vocalizations cool the air, guiding the Ochi toward calm through shared language. The group finally reaches the center of the mountain, where a large clearing houses the Ochi world. The moment culminates in a peaceful reconciliation: the baby Ochi is safely returned to its mother, and the Ochi’s chorus fills the air as the creatures celebrate. Dasha and Yuri repair their bond, recognizing that understanding—between species and across generations—takes patience, listening, and a willingness to venture beyond fear.
In the end, the film leaves behind a quiet, hopeful note: families can bend, cultures can learn to listen, and the line between human and wild can blur in moments of true connection, if only everyone is willing to step toward one another. The Ochi and the humans share a fragile, shared future, built on trust, memory, and music.
