One small point before touching the question in the title, that is the title of the movie. For those who didn't put too much effort into their Greek mythology studies. Styx is the name of the river leading from the land of the living into the land of the dead in the Greek mythology. Even more important is the fact that passangers on that river must have money with them or they won't be allowed into the land of the dead and will remain on the river for a century, in a greek version of Limbo.

Now that the movie's title makes sense, I'll discuss my own title. When a director chooses a lean approach to movie making, it means not using camera tricks not using any CGI, but rather making his own presence and the cinematographer's almost unnoticeable. And that's exactly what Wolfgang Fischer does, that is apart from two early scenes in the movie involving monkies. And in my humble opinion the movie would've been better without these scenes.

One last point: when one chooses a lean approach to directing it usually calls for a lot more from the actors. We get only two in this film, and the two of them are superb. Susanne Wolff and Gedion Odour Weseka, don't act their roles, they are the characters they portrey.

Easy to watch, hard to digest. "Styx" is a good and soft-voiced political film, but maybe too long for its simple message about individual responsibility.

Or maybe there's just too much message and too little drama in this film. It has a great analogy of Europe as naval crisis between an immigrant boat, a private boat and coastal guard. The grand political scenario of immigrant politics is dramatized in scale of two boats. If you get a mayday message on sea then it is the kind of situation where you must help anyone in need. But the lonely sailor (Susanne Wolff) of the private boat must decide how long will she use her own small boat and believe in her own devotion (she's a doctor) to help +300 immigrants in a sinking boat miles away from African west coast.

The basis for this contemporary drama is much better than the dramatic outcome. The story is cut short, just the way it might have gone, to be as blunt as the migration politics in Europe. There's not much left for atmosphere or character building. The setup for central scene is much more interesting than the proper scene with conflicts between different types of floating powers (literally).

If you like to get more metaphors or thoughts to consider about European politics at Mediterranean, you may want to see Fire at Sea (2016) by Gianfranco Rosi.

When the movie started first we see a strong educated woman. She doesn't need any men. She does everything on her own. Including setting up a yacht. So I thought this is going to be a great feminist film. But towards the middle of the movie the whole story took a different way. And started to be more about immigrants. I have got to also add that it takes the immigrant crisis to a sensitive level.