Reel Interview: O’Dessa at SXSW 2025
O’Dessa stars Stranger Things superstar Sadie Sink as the titular character who goes on a quest to save the love of her life from a dark authoritarian figure who has taken over the world. While the story may seem like a typical dystopian society film, there’s one fun twist that subverts audiences expectations: it’s a rock opera.
Sink’s character has the gift of music that she uses to appeal to the masses, who have begun to blindly follow Plutonovich, played by Murray Bartlett. However, O’Dessa's journey begins after the death of her mother, and her quest to be a rambling musician like her late father. As she goes on this adventure, her father’s magical guitar gets stolen. O’Dessa becomes determined to take her most prized possession back, sending her on a journey she never expected.
O’Dessa is relentless as she tries to get her guitar back, little does she know this quest would introduce her to the love of her life, Euri, played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. The two strike up a passionate romance that is soon thwarted when Euri is kidnapped by Plutonovich’s evil sidekick, Neon, played by Regina Hall. It is up to O’Dessa to save Euri, and save the world from the clutches of a controlling government.
Reel Talk’s Ally Bonsall spoke with Sink, Harrison, film composer Jason Binnick, and the film’s creator Geremy Jasper at the SXSW premiere of O’Dessa. When asked, Jasper shared that the idea for this story came “...from all over different places. Initially, I just had this vision of a waif female with a pompadour wandering through some sort of apocalyptic wasteland, and singing songs. That was the impetus, and then the world started to build from there.”
The film does an incredible job at worldbuilding, and it’s refreshing to see such an original idea enter the streaming world, especially when it seems like we’re in the era of franchises copying one another, or remaking the same film over and over again.
Premiering the film in the live music capital of the world seemed only right, according to Jasper. The songs are all beautiful lyrics with gorgeous singing from Sink and Harrison. Binnick shared that he and Jasper had a wonderful time creating the songs, and Binnick even shared that some of their songs took up to five years to fully idealize. Jasper even joked that he could save the world easily by knowing the words to “The Song” without messing up. What songs did Sink and Harrison Jr. claim they could save the world with? Watch our full interview to find out!
O’Dessa is now streaming on Hulu.
