Willem Dafoe’s Venice Movie ‘The Souffleur’ Finds Distribution in Italy Ahead of World Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

Gastón Solnicki’s buzzy new film “The Souffleur,” starring Willem Dafoe and world premiering in Venice Horizons, has found a home in Italy.

Magnify has sold the film to Revolver & Madison Group for distribution in Italy. The company is planning a wide theatrical release for the movie next year.

The film has also been acquired by Filmladen in Austria.

Along with Dafoe, the film stars Solnicki, newcomer Lilly Senn, Stephanie Argerich and Claus Philipp. The key crew includes cinematographer Rui Poças (“Grand Tour”).

An Austrian production, “The Souffleur” is produced by Gabriele Kranzelbinder and Paolo Calamita (“Museum Hours”) for Vienna-based Little Magnet Films and KGP Filmproduktion, Eugenio Fernández Abril for Primo (“Peter Hujar’s Day”) and Solnicki for Filmy Wiktora.

“We are proud to represent such an original film in Italy, with a brilliant performance by Willem Dafoe,” said Paolo Maria Spina at Revolver & Madison Group.

Dafoe stars as Lucius, a dedicated hotel manager, who, after working there for 30 years, finds out the building has been sold to an Argentine developer. With the help of his daughter and a handful of loyal employees, he clings to the life he’s built. What follows is a crusade of detours, espionage and a paranoid struggle to preserve a vanishing world — and the only home he’s ever known.

“We’re delighted to team up with Revolver & Madison Group,” said Magnify’s head of global sales Austin Kennedy, who is attending the Venice Film Festival and negotiated the deal with Paolo Maria Spina of Revolver & Madison Group. “’The Souffleur’ is a true cinematic experience, and we can’t wait for Italian audiences to experience it in theaters,” Kennedy continued.

In an interview with Variety at Venice, the filmmaker praised Dafoe, whom he said “was very courageous, which I was so impressed by — that someone of his talent and experience would still be so ambitious as an actor,” he said.

“He was so open, but also very rigorous with his time because he has all these other commitments. I wanted to make a more ambitious film, but Willem insisted I do what I always do — which was impossible, precisely because he was in it. We were like Herzog and Kinski, turning our hair gray,” he quipped.