‘Xoftex’ Review: Noaz Deshe’s Delirious Refugee Story Captures The Eternal Disorientation Of The Stateless Mind – Karlovy Vary

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It wouldn’t be a film festival without at least one timely, harrowing emigrant story, but just when you might think the stylistic possibilities have been exhausted — from documentary, to vérité-style fiction and occasionally a dash of deadpan comedy (like Ben Sharrock’s wonderful Limbo, 2020) — along comes Noaz Deshe’s audacious, delirious feature Xoftex.

Perhaps too out-there in its concepts and execution for mainstream crossover, Deshe’s film should pick up steam on the arthouse circuit, offering an unorthodox, often oblique, but emotionally powerful attempt to recreate onscreen the disorientation of the stateless mind.

The title, which sounds like something Big Pharma might produce, is actually an immigrant compound in Greece, where largely Muslim refugees are housed while they await the outcome of their asylum claims.

This, a brusque opening credit tells us, can take up to a year, but the truth is that the process can go on much, much longer.