Styx (2018)

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Movie
Original title Styx
Country of production Germany , Austria
original language German , English
Publishing year 2018
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Wolfgang Fischer
script Wolfgang Fischer,
Ika Künzel
production Marcos Kantis ,
Martin Lehwald ,
Michal Pokorny ,
Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu ,
Bady Minck
music Dirk von Lowtzow
camera Benedict Neuenfels
cut Monika Willi
occupation
Film screening of "Styx" in Metropol Düsseldorf 2018. Daniel Bäldle (Theater Director Metropol) in an interview with Wolfgang Fischer (left).

Styx is a feature film by Wolfgang Fischer from 2018 . The premiere of the German - Austrian co-production with Susanne Wolff in the lead role took place on February 16, 2018 as part of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival , where the film was shown as the opening film of the Panorama Special section and was awarded the Heiner Carow Prize by the DEFA Foundation was awarded. The film was released in German cinemas on September 13, 2018 and in Austrian cinemas on November 23, 2018.

action

Rike is an emergency doctor. During her vacation she sets off alone with her twelve meter long yacht Asa Gray on a trip in the footsteps of Charles Darwin from Gibraltar to Ascension in the South Atlantic. On her tour, she is informed by a container ship in her vicinity that she will have to prepare for a heavy storm with heavy rain on her route. In any case, support is promised.

After the violent nocturnal storm, she discovers a wrecked and hopelessly overloaded trawler near her boat . Over a hundred people are threatened with drowning, they wave and shout in the direction of their boat. Rike tries to contact the ship by radio. When she receives no answer, she tries to organize a rescue.

However, their calls for help initially remain without much echo, although several ships can be seen nearby on the on- board radar . The alerted coast guard promises help, but it is many hours in coming. The captain of the transport ship, who had promised her support before the storm, told her that the shipping company had forbidden any involvement in the sea ​​rescue of refugees.

Through the binoculars Rike notices that the passengers of the fishing boat fall or jump into the water in dire need. A boy about 14 years old swims and drifts towards their boat. She rescues the completely exhausted boy from the water with a lifebuoy and pulls the almost immobile body on board. Kingsley, the boy's name, is written on a bracelet. Rike moves away from the cutter with her yacht because she considers an attempt to help other people to be life-threatening because of her too small boat. She gives Kingsley first aid, provides him with professional wound dressings and an infusion . Once again, she radioed an emergency call to the coast guard, which again stated that help was on the way and that she should definitely stay away from the refugee boat.

Kingsley regains consciousness and tries to urge Rike to undertake a rescue operation for the cutter on which his sister would be among others. He wrestles with Rike for the ignition key of the yacht, even pushes her off board and takes the yacht away from Rike, who is swimming in the open sea. After a short drive, Kingsley stops the boat again, Rike makes it back on deck with difficulty. Horrified at his action, she yells at Kingsley, but realizes his desperation and reports to the coast guard that the Asa Gray would now sink herself. After the SOS , it switches off the on-board electrical system, activates the emergency beacon and fires several signal rockets .

In the night to come she approaches the cutter, boards its deck and sees a number of dying and dead people on the ghostly silent ship.

At dawn, a coast guard frigate approaches, emergency services use speedboats to rescue the survivors and dead from the damaged cutter, while radio messages are constantly being received about other wrecked ships, each with many refugees. Rike is arrested on the ship. While she is staring into space, deeply traumatized, she is told that a lawsuit is being initiated against her.

Production and Background

Part of the film team at the Austrian Film Award 2019

The shooting took place from October to December 2016 in Malta and in North Rhine-Westphalia . The production was supported by the Austrian Film Institute , the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media , Eurimages , the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW , the German Film Fund , the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg , the Film Funding Agency and the Malta Film Commission. The Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Arte were involved .

The film was produced by the German Schiwago Film , with the Austrian Amour Fou Filmproduktion as co- producer . Andreas Turnwald was responsible for the sound, Nicole Fischnaller for the costume design and Elke Hahn for the makeup.

The film title alludes to the river Styx , which in Greek mythology forms the border between the human world and the underworld. It is also the name of a goddess, the daughter of Oceanus , and means water of horror .

The yacht is named after the botanist Asa Gray , a friend and correspondent of Charles Darwin .

reception

For Alexandra Seitz from the Berliner Zeitung it is “the merit of Fischer's film to illustrate the irreparable damage that this cruelty of having to let happen, imposed by external forces, does in both people. [...] The result is not only an incredibly authentic film, but also a deeply sincere one. There is no wrong note and no comforting lie in 'Styx'. "

In her article for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Verena Lueken highlights Susanne Wolff's game and compares All Is Lost with Robert Redford : “A few years ago, Robert Redford also made a film almost alone in“ All is Lost ”when he played a man on a leaky boat trying to survive. It takes actors of this caliber for something like this to work. Susanne Wolff, almost mute, almost without a counterpart, is the one sensation in this film. The other? To make the Mediterranean Passage, the drowning people on their way to Europe, visible in a story that is pure cinema - movement and sounds and light and a figure whose world breaks apart because it cannot find an answer to a question about life and Death."

Matthias Dell also compared the film on Spiegel Online with All Is Lost with Robert Redford and wrote: “When you consider what tension, dramaturgy and narrative depth JC Chandor has got out of a similar setting [...], you have to be careful not with Styx to fall asleep". Dell also called Styx a “superfluous film”: “He doesn't find an adequate expression for his“ You have to do something ” feelings. The film that does it actually already exists. A very similar story was told in Havarie by Philip Scheffner in 2016, albeit as a documentary essay. "

Jessica Kiang also drew a comparison with All Is Lost for Variety magazine : "This is" All Is Lost "with a rotating compass and a topicality that is even more exciting than the brilliantly staged physical plot."

For Martina Knoben from the Süddeutsche Zeitung , on the other hand , Styx is “the right film at the right time” and “[...] asks the moral questions that overwhelm Rike as well as Western societies: look away and sail on while a humanitarian catastrophe unfolds before your eyes , it does not work. But should one save individuals and let many others die? Or try to help everyone, even if your own boat sinks? ”Knoben also remarks:“ The film does not offer a cheap way out of this dilemma, that is the honest and shocking part of this work. He draws his strength from the play of his leading actress Susanne Wolff, who, as solo sailor Rike, embodies the West, confident and sexy. "

In his review of the film for Die Zeit, Thomas Assheuer emphasizes the camera work by Benedict Neuenfels and the play by the leading actress Susanne Wolff: There is "a trepidation, a premonition, maybe also sadness about the long, gorgeous shots" of Neuenfels. Wolff played this oppression splendidly; she is a free person, but freedom and loneliness do not create happiness here. Assheuer interprets Gibraltar as the starting point of Rike's sailing voyage as one of the film's many mythical allusions: This is where the known world ended in antiquity with the Mediterranean Sea, while the global society of modernity made people all over the world roommates. As in a chamber play, Styx shows the merciless reality of civilization that has grown together. With its mythological allusions, the film does not turn the "refugee crisis" into an ancient tragedy, a fateful event that breaks out of the blue over the West and entangles it in contradictions that can only be resolved with power-political Darwinism.

Alexandra Seibel published an interview with director Wolfgang Fischer in the Kurier and praised in her film description: "Director Wolfgang Fischer made the film of the hour with his highly acclaimed drama Styx."

For fm4 , Pia Reiser conducted an interview with director Wolfgang Fischer and wrote in her online text about the radio report: “STYX is an excellent film that asks Europe the uncomfortable crucial question of how we feel about human dignity. STYX is less of a refugee drama than a chamber play thriller on the open sea. "

Nicole Albiez called Styx in her contribution to DOT.magazine “a masterly and urgent work. [...] A plea for humanity that is a blow in the pit of the stomach. "

In Hollywood Reporter, Boyd van Hoeij praised the illusion that Wolfgang Fischer spanned the entire film and the character Rike: “It is admirable how the director maintains the illusion of a documentary and decides on a third act, in a suitable, reserved tone, who neither glorifies Rike's role nor downplays the character's obvious compassion [...]. "

In a Screen Daily article, Ben Croll talks about the moral impasse that the audience is inevitably led into and with which they must confront: "Styx offers no easy answers, or any answers at all for that matter."

Awards and nominations (selection)

Web links

Commons : Styx  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Styx . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 182084 / K). Template: FSK / maintenance / type not set and Par. 1 longer than 4 characters
  2. ↑ a b Styx at berlinale.de . Retrieved February 16, 2018.
  3. ↑ a b Berlinale: Heiner Carow Prize to Wolfgang Fischer's "Styx" . Article dated February 22, 2018, accessed February 23, 2018.
  4. ↑ a b c d Styx. In: filmportal.de . German Film Institute , accessed on February 16, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Austrian Film Institute. Retrieved February 16, 2018 .
  6. ^ Kurier: Wolfgang Fischer: "Brand current situation and no solution" . Article dated February 26, 2018, accessed February 26, 2018.
  7. ↑ Film review ǀ "Styx" - Friday . Article dated February 17, 2018, accessed February 18, 2018.
  8. ↑ Anna Lutz: Catastrophe up close . Article dated February 17, 2018, accessed February 18, 2018.
  9. ↑ filmstarts.de: Styx . Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  10. ↑ Review of Styx on epd-film.de , accessed on September 23, 2018.
  11. ↑ ZEIT Online: "Styx": The boat is full . Article dated September 12, 2018, accessed September 14, 2018.
  12. ↑ Alexandra Seitz: Film of the week: "Styx" - The water and death. In: Berliner Zeitung . Retrieved September 18, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Verena Lueken: Video film review: "Styx": The storm after the calm . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . ISSN  0174-4909 ( Online [accessed September 28, 2018]).
  14. ↑ Sea rescue drama "Styx": At the moral outer border . In: Der Spiegel , September 11, 2018, accessed on September 11, 2018.
  15. ↑ Jessica Kiang, Jessica Kiang: Berlin Film Review: 'Styx'. In: Variety . February 24, 2018, accessed on December 6, 2018 (English): "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."
  16. ↑ Martina Knoben: SOS . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . September 11, 2018, ISSN  0174-4917 ( online [accessed September 11, 2018]).
  17. ↑ Thomas Assheuer: Das Boot ist voll In: Die Zeit , September 13, 2018, p. 52; accessed on November 2, 2018.
  18. ↑ Alexandra Seibel: Wolfgang Fischer on the film “Styx”: Outside the comfort zone. Courier , accessed November 26, 2018 .
  19. ^ Pia Reiser: Interview with director Wolfgang Fischer. (mp3, 15:35 minutes) ORF , archived from the original on November 26, 2018 ; accessed on May 9, 2019 .
  20. ↑ The end of Europe . In: fm4.ORF.at . November 22, 2018 ( online [accessed November 26, 2018]).
  21. ↑ DOT.magazine 056 . In: Issuu . ( Online [accessed November 26, 2018]).
  22. ↑ 'Styx': Film Review | Berlin 2018. The Hollywood Reporter , accessed on December 6, 2018 (English): “Admirably, the director maintains the documentary illusion throughout, opting for a third act that finds exactly the right, understated tone, neither glorifying Rike's role, nor underplaying the character's more than obvious compassion [...]. "
  23. ↑ Ben Croll: 'Styx': Berlin Review. Screen Daily, accessed December 6, 2018 .
  24. ↑ Berlinale: Awards for Independent Juries . Retrieved February 24, 2018.
  25. ^ Filmkunstfest MV: Prizes for Hübchen and "Styx" . Article dated May 6, 2018, accessed May 6, 2018.
  26. ↑ The prizes of the 28th FILMKUNSTFEST Mecklenburg-Vorpommern have been awarded . Article dated May 5, 2018, accessed May 6, 2018.
  27. ↑ 29th Internationales Filmfest Emden-Norderney: DGB-Filmpreis 2018 . Article dated June 5, 2018, accessed June 6, 2018.
  28. ↑ Internationales Filmfest Emden-Norderney: Styx . Retrieved June 7, 2018.
  29. ↑ 29th International Film Festival Emden-Norderney - SUPA MODO wins the SCORE Bernhard Wicki Prize at the 29th International Film Festival Emden-Norderney . Article dated June 11, 2018, accessed August 7, 2018.
  30. ^ Valletta Film Festival 2018 - List of Winners . Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  31. ↑ LUX-Filmpreis 2018: Austrian-German co-production “Styx” among the three finalists . OTS bulletin of July 26, 2018, accessed on July 27, 2018.
  32. ↑ The Film Art Prize 2018 of the 14th FESTIVAL OF THE GERMAN FILM LUDWIGSHAFEN AM RHEIN goes to "Murot and the marmot" by Dietrich Brüggemann . Article dated September 8, 2018, accessed September 9, 2018.
  33. ↑ Nominations for the German Director Award METROPOLIS 2018 . Article dated September 21, 2018, accessed September 21, 2018.
  34. ↑ orf.at: Viennese director Umut Dag received the Metropolis directing award . Article dated November 5, 2018, accessed November 5, 2018.
  35. ^ Five Films Nominated for European University Film Award (EUFA) . Article dated September 25, 2018, accessed October 5, 2018.
  36. ↑ Prize Winner 2018 - German Human Rights Film Award . Retrieved October 25, 2018.
  37. ↑ The refugee drama “Styx” received an award . Deutschlandfunk.de , accessed on November 9, 2018.
  38. ↑ orf.at: Viennale 2018: rain of prizes and good occupancy . Article dated November 8, 2018, accessed November 24, 2018.
  39. ^ The five finalists of the Günter Rohrbach Film Prize . Article dated October 8, 2018, accessed October 8, 2018.
  40. ↑ The film drama "In den Gänge" wins Günter Rohrbach Film Prize ( Memento from November 3, 2018 in the Internet Archive ). Article dated November 2, 2018, accessed November 3, 2018.
  41. ↑ Prize winners Austrian Film Prize 2019 . Accessed January 30, 2019.
  42. ↑ The nominations for the German Film Critics Prize 2018 have been confirmed . Article dated January 23, 2019, accessed January 23, 2019.
  43. ^ Bavarian Film Prize in Munich: winners announced . Article dated January 25, 2019, accessed January 25, 2019.
  44. ↑ German Camera Prize 2019 - The nominations . Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  45. ^ Lëtzebuerger Journal: Main prize for the Messi film . Article dated March 17, 2019, accessed March 18, 2019.
  46. ↑ German Film Prize: Wolfgang Fischer's “Styx” with six nominations . Article dated March 20, 2019, accessed March 20, 2019.