“When he was 50, he committed suicide. He was such a talented and very sensitive person and I remember that time, it’s almost like we forgot everything that he’s done so far,” Oda explained to TheWrap’s Beatrice Verhoeven. “Everyone who heard the news is focused so much on when he took his life and it was very impactful for me in trying to understand what he went through.”
“When I was writing ‘Nine Days’ I was pretty much trying to reconnect with my uncle, and at same time … instead of judging him through what he did … trying to see the life that he lived,” said Oda.
“Nine Days” takes place in a house, distant from the reality we know, and centers on a reclusive man named Will (Winston Duke) who interviews prospective candidates Emma (Zazie Beetz), Kane (Bill Skarsgård), Kyo (Benedict Wong), and Mike (David Rysdahl), who are each personifications of human souls, for the privilege that he once had: to be born.
Oda is a Latin Grammy-nominated writer/director and 2017 Sundance Screenwriters Lab Fellow. His previous work includes the award-winning short “Malaria,” and he’s the winner of a Gold Lion and three Bronze Lions at the Cannes International Creativity Festival.