Of Hitwomen, Fate, Hope for the U.S.: A Chat With Christoph Hochhäusler About ‘Death Will Come’

German writer and director Christoph Hochhäusler ( Milchwald , Till the End of the Night ) enjoys diving into the female psyche, even if it is that of as hitwoman. His new film Le Mort Viendra ( Death Will Come ) had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival’s 77th edition on Thursday, the first full day of Locarno77 after its Wednesday opening night .

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Belgian actress Sophie Verbeeck ( All About Them ) stars as Tez, a contract killer. “Charles Mahr, a legendary gangster, hires her to avenge the murder of one of his couriers,” reads a plot summary. “Once in Brussels, she gets caught up in the thicket of intrigue in which she herself becomes the prey. Tez has to decide whose instrument she wants to be.”

Produced by Heimatfilm, in collaboration with Amour Fou Luxembourg and Tarantula, the French-language film, part of Locarno’s international competition lineup whose jury is led by Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner , was written by Hochhäusler and his frequent writing partner, and German novelist, Ulrich Peltzer ( The Sins of Laziness ).

It sees its characters engage in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game that throws up a range of questions. The trailer for the thriller, which you can see below, starts with a bang.

“The main challenge probably was to make a film in French because it’s my first French-language film, and my French is not perfect – far from it,” Hochhäusler tells THR . “And shooting in different countries was one of the main things that occupied me, at least in preparing.”

How is the movie different from his past works? “It’s probably my purest genre work,” he explains. “It concerns movie tropes, like the contract killer and so on. So, it was full of challenges. But that’s what I actually am seeking. I try not to repeat myself. And I’m dreaming of making many different films. Of course, some will say: ‘It’s your kind of handwriting, your style.’ But as we know, style is what we can’t avoid.”

Underneath the trappings of a classic gangster movie, there are various deeper themes and issues Death Will Come explores. “We need the artifice to question reality. And what I really like about genre cinema, and especially the gangster film, is how directly you can address questions of fate, for example,” the filmmaker tells THR . “In a realistic setting, you need to circumvent certain things and take more detours. The great thing about genre cinema is that, because it’s already allegorical, you can address things like that more directly. So, it’s definitely like the title says – it’s a film about death and mortality. But it’s also, of course, hopefully about the fun to make a film in this world.”

Self-determination is a central theme in the story that Tez and other characters in the film face. “It goes back to very basic questions: Are we in control of our lives? Can we write our lives so to speak? Are we the author of our life?,” Hochhäusler explains. “And we are definitely not. But then, who is? If you think that God is dead, then the question becomes even more pressing. Can we be in control? And if if not, how do we deal with us being, at least partially, at the whims of bigger forces.”

Given Milchwald and other films of his have featured central female characters, what explains the German writer and director’s interest in the female psyche? “I’m definitely interested in female characters,” he tells THR . “And in my personal life, women are and have been very important. But apart from that, I feel that we are living in this time of the dusk of patriarchy – maybe. At least you can see the cracks at the seams and you can see all the violence. This world is paying the price for this model, so to speak.”

Again, a crime thriller like Death Will Come is a perfect vehicle for Hochhäusler to explore that. “The gangster film is like the prototype for a patriarchal structure, so I thought it would be fitting,” he says.

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It probably won’t come as a spoiler for the director’s fans that his latest movie doesn’t feature any clear-cut heroes. And the filmmaker likes it that way. “It’s a gangster film. So basically, it’s shades of grey anyway. In this world, it’s not easy to actually be white, versus black, in the moral sense.”

Instead, Hochhäusler set up the film as a showdown between two key characters. “For me, it was always about this duality between Mahr (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), the old, charismatic lizard of a gangster boss, and Tez, this very efficient, self-contained, disciplined killer character. They are both basically staring each other down in a way. So, for me, it’s very much a duality but not a duality of good and evil but more a duality of styles and ways to see the world.”

While Hochhäusler is right now focused on showing and promoting Death Will Come in Locarno, he is also developing several projects. “I have three scripts ready to shoot,” he tells THR . “I’m trying to juggle, which is necessary because you never know what gets financed and how long it takes. And I don’t want to wait around another decade.”

Any projects that he can share more about yet? “The script that is the furthest developed on is a kind of psycho horror set in Berlin in the expat community,” the filmmaker mentions. “There is an American-German couple, and it’s very dark.”

The German writer-director also shares his take on the state of the broader industry. “Now that the streaming wars are, at least for the time being, over, I think we can see that streaming is moving towards TV, which means that the old truth about TV is becoming the new truth of streaming,” he says. “This is not so exciting, because for a while there was excitement that they would invest in very experimental or open forms, and a lot of big-name directors got very good conditions to make interesting stuff. And this seems to be over for now. They are all consolidating, they are all trying to cut costs. And the field will narrow down to two or three big companies.”

For Hochhäusler, the big question is, “What will cinema be in 10 years’ time? It’s under a lot of pressure. I think one piece of the puzzle is definitely the aftermath of the strikes in the U.S. that really damaged a lot, not only in the U.S. because the U.S. film industry is so important for everything else and the pipeline.” Adds the director: “That’s unfortunate because we are in this critical time where almost a generation has lost the habit of going to the cinema. So it will be even more important to have the most thrilling films, and all kinds and all sorts of films. I’m a big fan of variety in cinema.”

The German filmmaker also worries about the state of the world. “It’s not in good shape,” Hochhäusler says. “It will be so important that American democracy comes back and sets an example. It’s very bad at that at the moment. It has been this kind of Greek mythology with all those abuses and absurdist turns. So it would be great to have a sensible, sober, pragmatic way of governing again. But that’s a big theme and problem all over the world.”

And that closes the circle to his new film at Locarno. “Autocrats are coming back, gangsters basically. So we are back to my film, and it’s so clear that gangsters are not the better government. But still, populism in all its forms is so popular now. That of course concerns me and worries me. And because the U.S. is always such a blinding guiding light, it’s very important what happens in the U.S., also for us here.”

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