INTERVIEW: ‘Styx’ finds sailor compelled to help refugees
Photo: Susanne Wolff stars in Styx, directed by Wolfgang Fischer. Photo courtesy of Benedict Neuenfels / Film Movement / Provided with permission of Film Forum.
Wolfgang Fischer’s new film, Styx, centers on a doctor who is trying to check an important item off her bucket list: sailing to a remote island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, she faces many trials and tribulations, none more serious than when she happens upon a boatload of refugees.
The central character of Rike (Susanne Wolff) must juggle her responsibilities as a sailor, as a doctor and as a human being. She is unwilling to let this group of people go without help, but the challenge of saving them is a tall order.
Styx is currently playing New York City’s Film Forum. Fischer and Wolff recently exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
Interview with Susanne Wolff:
What inspired you to join this film and take on this role?
Wolff: When I read the script for the first time, I had an immediate, prompt craving to do it. There was no doubt for me. How the story was written was so unique, and exceptionally and instantly perceptible.
Do you feel the film has a powerful message about the current refugee situation in the world?
Wolff: For me the message of the film is: Don’t look away. Stay. Feel responsible because everything you do falls into a circle, which goes around the world.
How difficult was the filming process given the unique surroundings?
Wolff: On one hand there was this huge world of the nature, the wind, the water and its unpredictability — and on the other the very small space of an 11-meter yacht, packed with 10 people and equipment. And that situation was asking for a lot of patience and strength. I think the only way was to concentrate 100 percent on each movement, on each little detail.
Interview with Wolfgang Fischer
What inspired you to tell this story? Was it something in the news that sparked your interest?
Fischer: Encounters in the middle of the ocean between pleasure boats and overloaded, stricken refugee boats is a nightmare scenario much-discussed among sailors, and such incidents are becoming increasingly common. What happens if a solo sailor (a yachtswoman alone on a boat) finds herself in this situation?
Inspired by true events, Styx pursues this question in a fictional fashion, illustrating how economic interests compete with humanitarian principles, how excessive demand usurps compassion, and how indifference destroys all hope.
Was it important to have a deep moral dilemma at the center of the film? Does that personalize this global issue of refugees?
Styx deals with individual dreams of paradise and revolves around central questions of identity: Who are we, who do we want to be, and who do we have to be?
We wanted to share a very profound emotional experience on the theme of migration with the audience.
To raise the question: What would I have done if I was in the same situation as our main character, Rike?
Was it a difficult filming process given the unpredictable nature of the ocean?
Everyone I asked advised us against it. ‘It can’t work. It’ll be hell, a nightmare. You can’t control the sea, it does whatever it wants.’ And that’s truly the way it was. It was dreadful.
We could not rely on any experiences from other directors because nobody has shot an entire feature on open water before.
We filmed near Gibraltar and Malta in 2016 — and it was the worst autumn in a decade. There were nothing but hurricane winds. We sailed for 16 hours between Malta and Sicily in one go and really, truly told the story while we were sailing. This was ultimately the most important decision. The project succeeded because we all subjected ourselves to this world.
We were eight people on the boat, and everyone had to hide in order not to show up in the film. The crew was underneath the deck or was hocked with robes to the railing.
The wind, the waves became your brothers in minds; seasickness was our common foe.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Styx, directed by Wolfgang Fischer and starring Susanne Wolff, is now playing the Film Forum in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
