German actor Franz Rogowski is on the rise after winning Best Actor from the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle for his performance as a toxic bisexual in Ira Sachs’ “Passages.” The “Happy End” breakout actor’s turn also featured in IndieWire’s Critics Poll of the best films and performances of 2023.
That means you shouldn’t ignore his performance in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature “Disco Boy,” winner of the 2023 Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. In this vividly dreamlike postwar drama, Rogowski plays a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. Comparisons to Claire Denis’ similarly themed “Beau Travail,” as Ben Croll pointed out in his Berlinale review for IndieWire, are inevitable and apt. After all, there’s a movie that made another unusual European actor — French actor Denis Lavant — an everlasting arthouse favorite.
In “Disco Boy,” following a difficult journey across Europe, Aleksei (Franz Rogowski) reaches Paris — undocumented — and enlists in the French Foreign Legion, which will grant him a French passport in exchange for his service. In the Niger Delta, Jomo (Morr Ndiaye) fights against oil companies that threaten the survival of his village. Meanwhile, his sister Udoka (Laetitia Ky) dreams of escaping, knowing that all is already lost there. Life, death, and destiny intertwine.
More from IndieWire’s review: “Like Claire Denis’ Sight and Sound chart-topper, here is a tour with the French Foreign Legion, another dissection of colonial roleplaying spent among a taciturn lot who find best expression in the rhythms of the night. So let’s dispense those comparisons up front, and with a degree of military efficiency befitting both films: While director Giacomo Abbruzzese does indeed pay homage to a direct artistic forbearer, his debut film stands (and writhes and shimmies) all on its own […] Pushed and pulled by another intensely physical Franz Rogowski turn, ‘Disco Boy’ follows a man ever on the move, a paperless migrant whose name, identity, nationality and, it seems, spiritual sense of self remain constantly in flux.”
Next up, Rogowski, nominated for Best Actor at the European Film Awards in 2021 for the gay prison drama “Great Freedom,” stars in David Michôd’s “Wizards!” and Andrea Arnold’s “Bird.”
“Disco Boy” will open at The Quad in New York City on February 2 and Laemmle Theaters in LA on February 9 from Big World Pictures. A national release will follow. Watch the film’s trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.
