‘Xoftex’: Munich Review

Dir: Noaz Deshe. Germany/France.  2024. 99mins

Xoftex is an ambitious attempt to share fresh insights into the refugee experience. Director, co-writer and cinematographer Noaz Deshe constantly blurs reality and fantasy to provide a visceral sense of the mental health pressures on those fleeing trauma and facing an uncertain future. The swirling fusion of stark reality, constructed narratives and the supernatural seems designed to keep the viewer off balance, but it does make for a challenging film.  Deshe’s feature debut White Shadow premiered in Venice in 2015, where it won Best Debut Feature, before going on to a healthy festival run. Similarly, further festival exposure seems likely for Xoftex after almost-simultaneous Munich and Karlovy Vary bows.

 An increasingly complex film

Opening titles inform us that those fleeing war or persecution who arrived in Greece in 2017 waited between 12 and 18 months for their asylum claim to be processed. During that time, they were housed in a refugee camp called Xoftex (or Softex). Based on true stories and featuring a cast of asylum seekers, Xoftex conveys an authentic-feeling representation of their lives. We witness the Kafkaesque bureaucracy, the waiting, the endless days of being trapped in limbo. Later, we see one man taking his chances, preparing to strike out on his own, perched precariously beneath a railway carriage. He is sold what seems like a cooking pot lid to protect his face from the stones that are thrown up and hit “like bullets”.

Palestinian-Syrian teenager Nasser (Abdulrahman Diab) shares a hut with his brother Yassin (Osama Hafiry) as they await their asylum decision. His creativity shines through as he directs other members of the refugee community in drama workshops, sketches and items for what they call “Xoftex TV”. He records short films on his phone. Props and fake cameras allow them to pretend they are news reporters braving front line terrors to file their reports. Humour becomes their chief weapon of resilience as they roleplay and imagine what life might be like in another country. Talk of a new life in France or Canada reveals the jocularity and camaraderie that bind the male residents of Xoftex. “I need to be in Switzerland,” one man claims. “My entire childhood I studied cheese and clock making.” They indulge the stereotypes of what Europe might offer but with notes of caution. “Bulgaria is a death sentence,” one declares.

The humour and artistic endeavours are the more cheerful elements of an increasingly grim life, and the most entertaining aspects of an increasingly complex film. Deshe emphasises Xoftex as a place of nightmares. The long, narrow rows of pre-fabricated huts have the look of a prison camp rather than a place of refuge. The pitch-black nights hold terrors, not least one refugee running amok with a knife. It is no wonder that Nasser starts to see it as an ideal setting for a horror film. He leads the refugees in the creation of their own zombie movie, but that in turn comes to reflect his deteriorating mental health.  Fantasy sequences, generally shot in black and white, slide from the comforting to the disturbing. Nasser is an increasingly isolated figure. Resilience gives way to paranoia and distress. The memory of his flight in a small boat keeps moving to the front of his mind.

Xoftex can seem a little disjointed at times -  as if it is trying to work out exactly what story it wants to tell and how best to do so. The making of the zombie film becomes less of a priority as it eventually achieves some kind of clarity by focusing on Nasser’s state of mind. A good deal of it takes place in a treacly darkness which can be hard to penetrate, but there are some powerful moments and images when the light starts to dawn.