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John and the Hole

2021 film directed by Pascual Sisto

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ96384692 ↗
Source-derived summary

John and the Hole is a 2021 American psychological thriller film directed by Pascual Sisto and written by Nicolás Giacobone. A feature-length adaptation of Giacobone's short story, "El Pozo", the film stars Charlie Shotwell, Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Ehle, and Taissa Farmiga. The film revolves around a boy who discovers an unfinished bunker in the neighboring woods of his home.

The film was selected for the official selection of the 2020 Cannes Film Festival and had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 29, 2021. It was released on August 6, 2021, by IFC Films.

Plot

Thirteen-year-old John Shay comes from an affluent family, living in a luxurious suburban home with his parents, Brad and Anna, and his older sister, Laurie.

On the surface, John's life appears picture-perfect, but deep inside, he feels disconnected and disillusioned. Seeking escape from the pressures and expectations of his privileged existence, John stumbles upon a hidden bunker in the nearby forest. Intrigued and drawn to the idea of control and power, he devises a chilling plan.

Driven by a mixture of curiosity, rebellion, and a desire to assert control, John decides to drug his family members.

Editorial summary

“John and the Hole” enters the record as 2021 film directed by Pascual Sisto. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what John, Hole and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2021, 2020—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2021. Its strongest next move is a source search built around John, Hole and film.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“John and the Hole” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, John, Hole and film provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q96384692. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2021 and 2020.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “John and the Hole”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow John and the Hole primary sources, John and the Hole archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “John and the Hole”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “John and the Hole” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.