Styx

Greek mythology's passage of water from this world to the next provides an appropriate title for this German-made contemporary thriller following the tribulations of a solo yachtswoman. Susanne Wolff is riveting in the central role as a life-saving big-city paramedic who seeks to unwind by sailing all the way from Gibraltar to remote Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. Much of the time she's on-screen alone, as director Wolfgang Fischer builds a wholly convincing portrait of the freedom and potential peril of this daunting trip. As in All Is Lost and Adrift, the elements intervene ferociously to put Wolff on her mettle, but it's an unexpected encounter with Africa's ongoing refugee crisis which gives the film an extra dimension. The unfolding situation places the heroine in a moral quandary with no easy answers, made all the more terrifyingly real by filming almost everything out at sea rather than relying on digital effects. A truly gripping journey into fear, whose questions about personal responsibility linger long after the closing credits.