John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell star as ageing CIA agents in McDonagh's Wild Horse Nine

Two ageing agents on Easter Island

Wild Horse Nine follows Chris, a 72-year-old CIA veteran who is terminally ill and suffering from dementia, and his longtime colleague Lee, played by Sam Rockwell. The two travel at state expense to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in Chile, shortly before the 1973 coup against President Salvador Allende. Chris wants to close his career with a memoir that exposes secret operations, but Lee has been sent by their boss, MJ (Steve Buscemi), to stop him. Chris has also asked Lee for a final favour that he can no longer remember.

The comedy runs on that friction. Chris tells strangers he is a spy and warns two young student activists that Chile is on the brink of a military coup. The pair show little interest in the moai statues or their meaning in ancestor worship, and anyone who corrects their pronunciation or asks them to be quiet at the memorial site gets abused.

Malkovich and Rockwell

Reviews single out John Malkovich's performance. NDR describes it as Oscar-worthy, and a Süddeutsche Zeitung review argues the role deserves an Oscar. Malkovich, 72, has been nominated twice for an Oscar without winning, according to SAPO, and he received the Volpi Cup for best actor at the Venice Film Festival in September. At a press conference in Los Angeles in early November, attended by AFP, he said the screenplay by McDonagh is what drew him to the project. Rockwell plays the loyal but exasperated partner, and the two debate guilt, the ethics of killing and, in one exchange, the cheese of various countries.

Politics and memory

McDonagh, a London-born director with Irish roots, calls Wild Horse Nine his most political film. In an interview with elDiario.es, he said the story first centred on a father and son with no link to the CIA, and that it only worked once he introduced the 1973 coup and the agency's role in it. He said this allowed him to examine guilt and remorse. According to NDR Kultur, he combined footage shot on Easter Island with original 1970s documentary material from the period of Allende's election. El Mundo reports him saying that CIA and US government operations in Chile in 1973, along with those at the Bay of Pigs and in the Congo, are no longer secret, yet few people seem to react. The film also uses songs by Violeta Parra and Víctor Jara, and Jara appears as a character at one point, per elDiario.es.

Festival run and awards prospects

The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was presented at Filmfest Hamburg a few weeks before 11 November, where McDonagh gave his interview to NDR Kultur. NDR lists it among the favourites for the 2027 Oscars. SAPO reports that the film was produced independently of the large Hollywood studios and that McDonagh, who won an Oscar for the short Six Shooter (2004), has been nominated three times for best original screenplay. McDonagh told NDR Kultur that the film arrives in cinemas at the right moment, because many of its themes repeat. He said he is curious how audiences in the United States will react.