Cinema Guild Takes North America For Berlinale Title ‘My Wife Cries’

EXCLUSIVE: Cinema Guild has acquired North American distribution rights for German Angela Schanelec’s My Wife Cries (Meine Frau weint), written and directed by Angela Schanelec.

The film premiered inCompetition at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival ealier this year and recently played in the Main Slate selection of the 64th New York Film Festival.

The study of the dynamics of a Berlin couple, the film opens with Thomas (Vladimir Vulevic), a crane operator, awaiting a call from his wife, Carla (Agathe Bonitzer), a nursery-school teacher.

But she is curled up on a bench outside a hospital, bereft over the death of another man, her dance class partner. Thomas finds her and sits beside her until she is ready to return home; the walk there reveals a secret that opens a rift of no return.

Written and directed by Schanelec, My Wife Cries follows her experiemental works I Was at Home, But… (2019) and Music (2023).

“Schanelec finds extraordinary emotional depth in the smallest exchanges between people,” said Cinema Guild President Peter Kelly. “We’re proud to continue bringing her films to North American audiences with this moving and surprising work.”

The deal was negotiated by Peter Kelly and Dylan Foley of Cinema Guild and Kevin Chneiweiss of Paris-based SBS.

Vulevic and Bonitzer are joined by Birte Schnöink, and Pauline Rebmann in the cast, with cinematography by Marius Panduru and editing by Schanelec.

The film is produced by Kirill Krasovski for Blue Monticola Film, in co-production with SBS Productions, Maier Bros., and Unitbase.

Schanelec previously received the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Best Director for I Was at Home, But… and the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay for Music.

Cinema Guild’s further upcoming releases include Hong Sangsoo’s The Day She Returns, Nowhere to Lay My Eyes and Ted Fendt’s Foreign Travel.

Recent releases include Otar Iosseliani’s restorations, Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan in Gaza, Hong Sangsoo’s What Does That Nature Say to You, and Aleksandre Koberidze’s Dry Leaf.