Veteran actor Willem Dafoe will star in Argentinian filmmaker Gaston Solnicki’s upcoming English film The Souffleur, reports Variety. The film is currently in post-production.
The Souffleur features Dafoe as the long-serving hotelier of the Vienna-based InterContinental Hotel. The official synopsis reveals that upon discovering his beloved hotel is slated for sale to a developer from Argentina with plans for demolition and complete reconstruction, he initiates a personal campaign against the new owner. The synopsis continues, “Spiraling into absurd paranoia, his profound unraveling begins to manifest in his surroundings — the hotel pipes become blocked, the clocks go haywire and his trademark soufflés refuse to rise.” Principal photography for the film took place on location at the aforesaid hotel in Vienna.
Joining Dafoe in the cast are Solnicki himself, newcomer Lilly Senn, Claus Philipp, and Stephanie Argerich. The technical crew boasts talent such as cinematographer Rui Pocas, known for his work in Grand Tour, which was presented at Cannes in 2024 and earned Miguel Gomes the best director award.
The Souffleur is being produced by Paolo Calamita and Gabriele Kranzelbinder for Little Magnet Films and KGP Filmproduktion, alongside Solnicki for Filmy Wiktora and Eugenio Fernandez Abril for Primo.
Magnify will handle worldwide sales for the film, excluding Austria. Austin Kennedy, the head of sales at Magnify, commented, “The Souffleur is an inventive and entertaining film featuring a lively cast of characters led by Willem Dafoe, who plays the souffleur himself. The story blends humor with timely themes of social and class structure, change and modernity, resulting in a wholly original work that is both charming and delightfully comedic. This marks Solnicki’s most ambitious film to date, a richly layered work that pushes his storytelling into bold new territory.”
