How Chris Evans, a Semi-Active Volcano and Donkeys Came Together to Make TIFF-Bound ‘Sacrifice’

“Just to be clear,” says director Romain Gavras when discussing his new movie Sacrifice.  “We didn’t actually throw anyone in a volcano.”

A disclosure like this may seem unnecessary, but for a film that was partially shot on location on the rim of a semi-active volcano, it is not entirely needless.

For Sacrifice, which is set to debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 6, Gavras and producers traversed treacherous terrain —  from mines in Northern Greece to the Cannes film market — to make an independent feature that really doesn’t look like one.

In Sacrifice, Gavras dissects myth-making in its many forms. The movie follows actor Mike Tyler (Chris Evans), who is attempting a comeback after a personal crisis and subsequent soul-searching. For his first public appearance, he attends a black-tie environmental charity gala thrown by a billionaire entrepreneur (Vincent Cassel). But it gets interrupted by a violent radical group led by Joan (Anya Taylor-Joy) that is searching for individuals to fulfill a volcano-inclusive prophecy.

Gavras made the jump to feature filmmaking after a successful career directing music videos for the likes of M.I.A. and Jay-Z. In 2022, he released the French-language action-drama Athena with Netflix, after which he wanted to tackle his English-language debut. For this, he enlisted Will Arbery, a writer from one percent-skewering HBO sensation Succession.

Sacrifice captures the tenor of these high-end charity events that are attended by the famous and ultra-wealthy, and have a tendency to land somewhere between tone-deaf to hopelessly self-congratulatory.

“Having been in those kinds of ceremonies, the cheeky side of my brain wonders what would happen if people arrived with guns and started to create mayhem,” says Gavras, who says he normally avoids these kinds of social commitments. “I try not to go because they make you feel uncomfortable. Because we were researching the film, I went to some, and there is stuff you can’t even put in the movie because it was too much.”

What does end up in the film is a popstar (played by Charli xcx) calling herself “mother nature” singing about the ills of the planet, as strobe lights flash, electro-pop plays and back-up dancers twerk onstage.

Gavras and Arbery delivered the script at the top of 2024 to producers Robert Walak and Jacob Perlin of Iconoclast. The director flew out to Los Angeles in April to meet with potential cast, landing his stars Evans and Taylor-Joy in less than a week.

“What I love about him is that he’s the perfect American movie star,” says the director of his leading man. With Mike Tyler, Evans gets to play a bizarro-world version of himself. In real life, Evans has successfully landed the dismount after years playing Marvel’s Captain America, not getting swallowed up by his own celebrity or the role that made him famous, instead now opting for projects with filmmakers like Celine Song (The Materialists). (Though he occasionally returns to Marvel, as well.)

Onscreen, Evans’s Mike Tyler instead takes a more self-destructive route — at times, equal parts hilarious and harrowing — preoccupied by his public image and being perceived as a righteous do-gooder.

Says Gavras of Evans taking on the role, “This is very, very risky, and that’s the beauty of it.”

For her part, after meeting with Gavras, Taylor-Joy “the next day, texted him a picture of an emoji of a volcano and someone falling into it,” remembers Walak. “We thought, ‘I think that means that she’s in.’”

Weeks after the cast locked, the movie, which was boarded by Mid March Media and Film4, was presented to buyers at the 2024 Cannes film market. While on the Croisette, the producers got an alert about volcanoes erupting in Iceland. In between meetings with potential partners, the team sent a drone to capture the activity for what would become nature-documentary worthy insert shots used in the movie.

But Iceland, which is known for its high volcanic activity and has hosted productions like Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, would not work for their shoot. Gavras wanted to film in order, which meant that by the time the 50-day production wound its way to the volcano sequences, it would be wintertime in the country. Instead, filmmakers found their volcano near Santorini. For the filmmaker, who is half Greek, Greece felt like the right place for his mythology-centric story.

Even outside of the volcano, from a massive mine and caves to military helicopters, Sacrifice is filled with the kind of set pieces and locations you wouldn’t expect in an independently financed feature. Says Gavras, “I’m terrible with VFX and stuff like that, so I always shoot practically.”

Says Perlin, “Anyone else would be, ‘Can we do this? Can you execute it?’ And I think that’s where Romain shines.” Walak notes that should they have taken the studio route with the film, but that would have changed the outcomes, saying, “We always felt that this would most likely be an indie feature to give Romain that freedom.”

For his part, Gavras adds, “I have a lot more gray hair now.”

To build the film’s charity event, the team shot in a marble quarry in the city of Volakas in Northern Greece. 400 extras were brought in to fill out the space, with Charli xcx, in the middle of prep for a globe-spanning Brat arena tour, flying in for two days for her pitch-perfect scene.

When it did finally come time to film on the rim of the volcano, a question emerged about how to physically get there. The answer: donkeys.

“Robert and I would look through the budget and be like, ‘That’s a lot for donkeys!’” says Perlin. Walak adds, “There were some definitely irate emails about donkeys.”

No vehicles are allowed on the volcanic island, which meant Evans, Taylor-Joy and the rest of the cast and crew had an hour-plus hike up the shooting location, while donkeys carried equipment uphill. The group would arrive already tired, with smoke and wind whipping through the setup. But Gavras notes that the film’s performances would not be the same if they were captured in the comfort of a soundstage. He says, “It puts the whole team and the whole cast in an energy where we know that we are making a film that is going to be difficult but will be super satisfying.”

Sacrifice is looking for distribution at TIFF, with CAA Media Finance and Rocket Science handling sales. Outside of the satire, high concept, and higher production value, the director notes that the film, at its core, is about people who are trying to figure out their place in the world and, just maybe, along the way, make it a better one.

“We live in a world that’s fucking crazy. You turn on the news, you turn on the internet, and everything is mad,” says Gavras. “I’m surrounded in a world that I don’t really get, I don’t completely understand. To make a film is the attempt to not give answers, but at least to question it.”

As for what’s next, after his experience on Sacrifice, the director says, “I’m thinking of maybe making a nice story in a small apartment.”