Director Romain Gavras (Athena) has always been drawn to myths. As a child, his father, lauded Greek film director Costa-Gavras, would often weave epic tales of gods and men, from Mount Olympus to the Underworld. “In myths, everything is a little bit heightened,” Gavras tells Netflix. “The violence is exacerbated, the humor can be exacerbated, the stakes are exacerbated, and there are echoes with the past and the future.”

Anya Taylor-Joy as Joan

That philosophy is on full display in Sacrifice, Gavras’s latest film that combines a theatrical plot with grounded cynicism about the performance of wealth and charity galas, as well as an earnest exploration of faith. Chris Evans plays Mike Tyler, a down-on-his-luck action star searching for his comeback at a star-studded environmental event held in an austere Greek mine. Hosted by billionaire Ben Bracken (Vincent Cassel) and his wife, Gloria (Salma Hayek-Pinault), it’s the kind of soirée we’ve seen unfold on social media countless times: The rich and powerful gather to pay lip service to a cause, snap a picture, and go on their way. Well, not this time. The proceedings are cut short when a cult leader named Joan (Anya Taylor-Joy) and her followers take the event hostage. Their driving force? The belief that an extinction-level event will take place in three days if three people are not sacrificed to a nearby volcano. 

“The film is kind of a roller coaster,” says Gavras, who co-wrote the script with Will Arbery (Succession). “You need to enter the film like you’re going to enter a ride and let yourself go. There’s a lot of rug pulls and you think you’re going this way, but you’re going that way.”

Read on for more about Sacrifice below. 

Charli xcx as Mother Nature

What is the plot of Sacrifice?

During a star-studded charity gala brimming with celebrities, billionaires, and empty speeches, a movie star in the midst of an existential crisis (Evans) is taken hostage by a radical warrior (Taylor-Joy) and her devoted followers. 

As the night descends into chaos, both an inward journey and an outward adventure ensue, where the lines between performance and belief — and salvation and sacrifice — begin to blur.  

Ambika Mod as Katie and Sam Richardson as Oliver

Who is in the cast of Sacrifice?

• Chris Evans as Mike Tyler
• Anya Taylor-Joy as Joan
• Vincent Cassel as Ben Bracken
• Ambika Mod as Daughter Nature
• Jonatan “Yung Lean” Leandoer as Arthur
• Sam Richardson as Oliver
• Yung Lean as Arthur
• Jade Croot as Louise
• Miriam Silverman
• Charli XCX as Mother Nature
• John Malkovich as Gunnar
• Salma Hayek-Pinault as Gloria Bracken

When assembling Sacrifice’s eclectic cast, Gavras searched for performers who could embrace the film’s multiple facets. “Chris is very interesting,” says Gavras about his leading man. “His comedic timing is amazing. He’s an extremely intelligent actor that understands completely who he is and his own relationship with ego. And so we kind of pulled that thread and cranked the idea of an actor to 100. This is what mythology does: you take a character and you crank it to 11.”

“I’ve been a fan of Anya since very early on, since The Witch,” Gavras adds. “She has something very otherworldly and whimsical about her that is striking just in terms of iconography.  I don’t see many other people that could have carried that character — she comes with so much strength, but also a sensibility that makes the character very three-dimensional and that makes her strong and vulnerable at the same time.”

Vincent Cassel as Ben Bracken and Salma Hayek Pinault as Gloria Bracken

Sacrifice marks the third collaboration between Gavras and Cassel, who also produced Gavras’s very first film, Notre Jour Viendra (Our Day Will Come). “When I made him read the script, he was like, ‘I love the character. I don’t know why you think he’s a bad guy. He actually says it as it is and he understands the world, he loves his wife.’ So, he really took the character in a different approach that I really liked.”

Of course, no myth is complete without a touch of the divine — in this case, pop stars Yung Lean and Charli XCX. Gavras, whose past work as a music video director includes Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” wanted to bring that raw energy to the screen. “Charli and Yung Lean, we’ve been friends for a very, very long time.  I’ve known Yung Lean since he was 16, and he was the first one cast in the film. I was writing, and I called him. I was like, ‘I know you’re not an actor, but I have a role that I want you to play in my next film.’ Charli has a small cameo in it, but it made sense as a kind of group of friends making insane films and body of work to have her as well.”

John Malkovich as Gunnar 

What is Sacrifice based on?

Though Sacrifice isn’t based on a single text, Gavras and Arbery pulled from the mythology Gavras loved as a child, sprinkling in some unexpected additions along the way. 

“The inspiration goes from Greek myths to French stories like Joan of Arc,” Gavras says. Jokingly, he adds, “And another myth that is more recent, which is Lord of the Rings. Will and I were writing, and at some point we’re like, ‘Oh, we’re making Lord of the Rings.’ It’s a journey of people wanting to throw the ring of power in a volcano, and we are making the same journey.”

Yung Lean as Arthur, Taylor-Joy as Joan, and Jade Croot as Louise

Where was Sacrifice filmed?

Sacrifice was filmed entirely on location in Greece, Bulgaria, and Iceland. “We had to bring 200 extras in gala dresses to a mine in Northern Greece with all the A-list cast actors,” Gavras says. “I think this is what makes it interesting. It’s more fun as a director to bring the cast on a real active volcano, when actors are down to do stuff like that. Every morning, we had to climb up for almost an hour, with all the gear on donkeys, everyone walking up. You get performances that are amazing.”

When is the Sacrifice release date?

Sacrifice will stream on Oct. 16 on Netflix in the United States and France.