‘Xoftex’ Director Noaz Deshe Works on Ukraine Documentary With Pussy Riot’s Pyotr Verzilov, ‘House of Cards’ Creator Beau Willimon
variety.comNick Holdsworth Noaz Deshe, whose “Xoftex” had its world premiere this week in competition at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, is in post-production with his next project.
Deshe tells Variety the new film is a documentary set in Ukraine, which is a collaboration with Russian dissident Pyotr Verzilov – an artist and member of the anti-Kremlin performance art group Pussy Riot – and “House of Cards” creator Beau Willimon.
Deshe – a Romanian citizen whose grandfather was Ukrainian – won’t be drawn on the documentary’s title, but says it is “about intimacy and love in a time of love and dreams.” Deshe’s unsettling sophomore feature “Xoftex” is a deep dive into the world of the “other.” Like his acclaimed 2013 directorial debut “White Shadow,” about an albino boy, “Xoftex” takes viewers into a landscape of alienation and pain that is challenging to watch.
Inspired by a vast Greek refugee camp named Softex just north of Thessaloniki, that houses mostly Arab asylum seekers fleeing war in the Middle East, “Xoftex” is a liminal space where time loses its meaning as people who have lost all control over their own lives await bureaucratic decisions that will decide their destiny.
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