New York-based distribution company Cinema Guild announces the North American theatrical release of You Burn Me (Tú me abrasas), the latest work from Matías Piñeiro, marking an exciting new direction in the acclaimed Argentine auteur’s filmography.
The hour-long reverie on love and mortality will debut on Friday, March 7 at Anthology Film Archives in New York City and on Friday, March 14 at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, with additional cities to follow.
Following its world premiere at the Berlinale and North American premiere at the New York Film Festival, You Burn Me both extends Piñeiro’s signature playful literary adaptations of Shakespeare and embarks on a bold new artistic vision.
This time, he turns to Cesare Pavese‘s final work from 1947, adapting “Sea Foam,” a chapter from Dialoghi con Leucò, in which the Greek poet Sappho encounters the nymph Britomartis to discuss love, myth, and mortality.
Piñeiro’s longtime collaborators Gabi Saidón, María Villar, and Agustina Muñoz provide voiceover narration as the film blends close-up shots of annotated phrases, playful drawings, and quotidian abstractions of the sea.
Set in present-day Turin and shot on 16mm, the film evokes a surreal detachment, as tourists fill the streets and characters use cell phones to translate ancient Greek texts. You Burn Me also reflects on Pavese’s own tragic life—an antifascist poet and novelist from Turin who died by suicide in the city’s Hotel Roma.
As with his previous works, Piñeiro continues pushing the boundaries of cinematographic language, crafting a richly textured and sensorial film that defies traditional essayistic narratives and literary adaptations. You Burn Me reflects the distinct fixations of this visionary Argentine auteur.
The film’s North American theatrical release includes the brand-new, standalone six-minute short Preface for the Little Dialogue, featuring the director’s voiceover as an introduction to the feature.
In conjunction with the New York City run, Anthology Film Archives will present a guest-curated series by Piñeiro, showcasing films that influenced You Burn Me and engage with its themes and techniques, including works by Mariano Llinás, Michelangelo Antonioni, Danièle Huillet, and Jean-Marie Straub. Meanwhile, the American Cinematheque will host Piñeiro’s first complete retrospective in Los Angeles as part of the film’s local release.