For his pre-determined directorial swan song, cult filmmaker Alex Cox (REPO MAN, STRAIGHT TO HELL) returns to Almaría for a loose adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s 1842 novel reimagined as a frontier fable of American greed.
Cox himself stars as the mysterious drifter Strindler (or is it ‘Swindler’?) as he scours the Old West for the names of dead Mexican laborers. Arriving at a border town in 1890, Strindler raises eyebrows when he offers to pay a pretty penny to add to his mysterious list. Wandering affably from saloon to ranch, Strindler exercises the old adage that money talks—but sometimes, he finds, too loudly. Between the town drunk, hot-headed cowherds, and local outlaws, Strindler soon finds himself tangled up in his own tall tales.
The Western fits Cox as snugly as the black bowler hat he wears throughout DEAD SOULS, pistol duels and crooked officials abound, and spaghetti Western legend Gianni Garko (Sartana) claims a co-writer credit. But Cox’s idiosyncrasy stands out as the film veers tonally through the picaresque, dark satire and genre curveballs you won’t expect. – adapted from notes from IFFR
“Wild, original! DEAD SOULS is funny in that offbeat, purely Cox kind of way.” – Film Threat
“Juggling slapstick humour, political critique, trigger-happy action and surreal tangents, Dead Souls is a charmingly eccentric, mischievous late-career effort from an admirably uncompromising indie auteur.” – The Film Verdict