“A Playful Dialogue”

An Analysis of The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

Abstract

As the main literary source on the myth, Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis retells the episode of the sacrifice of the eldest daughter of the king of Mycenae, Agamemnon. The work was adapted to the cinema in Iphigenia, released in 1977, and in the feature film Extranjera, in 2009. Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, in his film The Killing of the Sacred Deer, released in 2017, proposes a dialogue with the myth of Iphigenia. However, unlike the previous films, the picture is not entirely based on the Euripidean text, and its director avoids classifying the film as an adaptation of the tragedy. Based on studies by Hardwick (2003), Hutcheon (2013), Sanders (2006) and Nuñez (2019), this article aims to present the Greek tragedy, the cinematographic work, the director´s profile and his motives for choosing the mythological theme, and, finally, to discuss, alongside with the analyses of key moments in both works, whether Lanthimos' feature film can be considered an adaptation or cultural appropriation.