Styx

Description

Product Description

Premiering at the Berlinale, where it opened the Panorama Special section, Styx is a work of unrelenting intensity and technical brilliance. ER doctor Rike (Susanne Wolff) embarks on a one-woman solo sailing trip to Ascension Island in the Atlantic. When Rike comes across a sinking ship of refugees, she is quickly torn out of her contented and idealized world and must make a momentous decision. Aptly named after the mythological river that separates the living from the dead, Styx is an astute modern day parable of Western indifference in the face of marginalized suffering. Carrying practically the entire film, Wolff is riveting as a woman pushed to her physical, psychological and moral limits.

Bonus features include commentary with Director Wolfgang Fischer and Actress Susanne Wolff, as well as short film.

Review

WINNER – Heiner Carow Prize – Berlin Int’l. Film Festival
WINNER – Ecumenical Jury Prize – Berlin Int’l. Film Festival
WINNER – Label Europa Cinemas – Berlin Int’l. Film Festival
WINNER – Best Feature Film – German Human Rights Film Award
WINNER – Best Actress Metropolis Prize – German Directors Guild
WINNER – Best Director Metropolis Prize – German Directors Guild
WINNER – Best Producer Metropolis Prize – German Directors Guild
WINNER – Best Actress – Günter Rohrbach Film Prize
WINNER – Best Actress – Valletta Film Festival
WINNER – Best Cinematographer – Valletta Film Festival
WINNER – Flying Ox – Schwerin Art of Film Festival
WINNER – Audience Award – Schwerin Art of Film Festival
WINNER – Mehrwert Award – Vienna Int’l. Film Festival
WINNER – Best Director – Austrian Film Awards (Austrian Oscars)
WINNER – Best Script – Austrian Film Awards (Austrian Oscars)
WINNER – Best Film Editor – Austrian Film Awards (Austrian Oscars)
WINNER – Best Cinematographer – Bavarian Film Awards —

Styx weaves a lean and gripping parable about the refugee crisis…a spartan (wo)man-versus-nature adventure tale in the style of All Is Lost, and one that’s even more strikingly authentic in its depiction of ocean sailing than J.C. Chandor’s film. – Keith Watson, Slant Magazine

A taut moral thriller… – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

A blunt, breathless, and astoundingly unsentimental morality play that’s told with the intensity of a ticking-clock thriller… –David Ehrlich, IndieWire

Like the small sailboat on which it is set, Wolfgang Fischer’s extraordinarily gripping account of a one-woman solo voyage across the Atlantic that is suddenly interrupted when she comes across a sinking trawler overloaded with refugees, is brisk, efficient and thrillingly dynamic. This is All Is Lost with a spinning moral compass and a topical dimension that proves even more gripping than its brilliantly achieved visceral action. – Jessica Kiang, Variety

Styx is minimalist filmmaking executed in superbly sharp fashion. Susanne Wolff…accomplishes more in a glance than most of her peers could ever hope to achieve with minute-long, uninterrupted diatribes. Benedict Nuenfels’s cinematography steals your undivided attention, and never once relents its evocative authority. – Jonathan Christian, The Playlist

Carrying practically the entire film, Wolff is never less than remarkable in a demanding role that’s 80 percent silence and 20 percent English-language dialogue. The fully inhabited turn should further help cement her international status as a star to be reckoned with… –Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter