STYX stars Susanne Wolff as Rike, a German emergency room physician, who leaves behind her everyday life to fulfill a long-held dream: a solo crossing of the Atlantic. But when she boards the Asa Gray, her gleaming white sailboat, in Gibraltar, she has no way of knowing the troubles or personal transformations that await her on the open seas. 

The film directed by Wolfgang Fischer had its World Premiere at 2018 Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama Section, where it captured the Heiner Carow Prize, the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Europa Cinemas Label.

STYX will open in theaters on February 27 at Film Forum in New York City.

In the film, following a rough storm, Rike (Susanne Wolff) happens upon an overloaded, damaged boat teeming with dozens of refugees.  When emergency calls to the Coast Guard and nearby commercial vessels go unreturned and rescue seems unlikely, she’s forced to take matters into her own hands in a film Variety calls, “brisk, efficient and thrillingly dynamic.” 

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.  Of her turn, which captured the Best Actress Award at the Valletta Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter said, “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.”