“Wild Horse Nine”, interview with director Martin McDonagh

Martin McDonagh returns to the Venice Film Festival 2026, in competition at the 83rd edition with Wild Horse Nine, starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as longtime CIA partners Chris and Lee. Set just before the 1973 Chilean coup, the film follows the two agents as they are sent by their section chief, MJ (Steve Buscemi), from Santiago to Easter Island, where, among the island’s ancient statues, Chris’s new bond with two rebellious students (played by Mariana Di Girolamo and Ailín Salas) threatens to unravel everything. Balancing the dark humor typical of McDonagh’s writing, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin, with real emotional weight, the film also stars Tom Waits and Parker Posey.

A love story found in Chile’s history

Martin McDonagh had been looking for a story to set on Easter Island for years before it came together. “I went to Easter Island fifteen years ago, just to see if there was a story to be told there,” he says. “I tried different variations of two guys being there, and why they had to be there, but nothing worked until I started thinking about what the CIA did in Chile in 1973, when they destabilized and helped overthrow the democratically elected government there.” Once that historical thread became part of the story, McDonagh explains, he could explore something more intimate: the guilt and regret carried by his two CIA agents, Chris and Lee.

Balancing comedy with something darker

Even with such heavy subject matter, Martin McDonagh didn’t want to abandon his usual tone. “I love comedies, and most of my writing is usually funny,” he says, “but it was also about making sure there was a balance between the comedy and the darker, sadder aspects of the story.” That balance runs through the friendship between Chris and Lee: one man unwell and older, looking back on his life, alongside a friend who isn’t entirely sure he can trust him, “but he knows that he loves him, and his friend loves him too.”

Making sure the world remembers

The political core of the story is something Martin McDonagh has carried with him for a long time. “I’d been interested in the subject of Chile since my teens,” he says, “so I always wanted to examine it in a story, and to make sure the world remembers what happened, and what the American government did back then.”

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