Director Dito Tsintsadze compares his film Roxy to a mash-up of two of his favorite Coen Brothers’ films: Fargo and The Man Who Wasn’t There.
“We have this sort of faceless man, a taxi driver, like the barber in The Man Who Wasn’t There, a man who doesn’t believe in himself, without ambition,” says Tsintsadze, “and then, suddenly, through a situation he could never imagine or expect, he is thrown into another world and, like Fargo, it becomes a dark comedic thriller.”
It begins when some Russian gangsters, including boss Igor and his bulldog Roxy, step into Thomas Brenner’s taxi cab, and a normal fare takes a turn for the bloody,
Thomas is played by the acclaimed German character actor Devid Striesow, who appeared in the Oscar-nominated Downfall and The Counterfeiters.
When he finds out that he has a talent for crime, Thomas becomes Igor’s wheelman and, increasingly, close confidant. But as he begins to fall for Igor’s wife Aziza, and as Igor’s enemies start to catch up with the oligarch, Thomas realizes he’ll need to get his hands dirty if he wants to save himself and start a new life.
“I’ve always been a fan of mixing genres,” says Tsintsadze. “So this is an existential story, an art house story about a man whose personality metamorphoses, but it’s made like a thriller with a lot of suspense.”
In Tsintsadze’s 2003 San Sebastian winner Gun-Shy, a pacifist loner becomes obsessed with killing an abusive man.
And his 2000 Cannes Fest Un Certain Regard entry Lost Killers concerns a trio of hapless hitmen struggling to carry out their first job.
The Georgian-born director, who has worked in Germany for decades, has walked the line between genre director and festival darling. That ambivalence defines Roxy and its lead character, who Tsintsadze, notes, “we’re never sure if he’s actually good or actually bad.”
Striesow is in every scene in Roxy — “it’s entirely from his perspective,” notes Tommy Niessner, who produced Roxy together with partner Eliane Niessner of Stuttgart-based East End Film. “Devid is a very unique actor, and his perspective gives Roxy a very unique style and character.”
Currently in post-production, Roxy is presented to buyers at this year’s virtual European Film Market (Atlas Films is handling world sales).
East End is targeting a late summer, early fall festival release, followed by a theatrical role out in Germany via Kinostar. “This is a movie made for the big screen, and we think Dito and Devid’s approach will make it stand out,” says Niessner. “It’ll find its audience, whether in the cinemas or online.”
