Cinema Guild, the New York-based distribution company, announces the North American theatrical release of You Burn Me (Tú me abrasas), the latest film by acclaimed Argentine director Matías Piñeiro. This hour-long meditation on love and mortality will premiere on March 7 at Anthology Film Archives in New York City, March 14 at the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, and March 21 at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, with more cities to follow.
Following its world premiere at the Berlinale and North American premiere at the New York Film Festival, You Burn Me marks a new direction in Piñeiro’s work. The film, a literary adaptation of Cesare Pavese’s Sea Foam from Dialoghi con Leucò (1947), explores the encounter between the Greek poet Sappho and the nymph Britomartis as they discuss love, myth, and mortality.
Shot on 16mm in Turin, the film blends close-ups of annotated phrases, playful drawings, and abstractions of the sea. It combines a surreal detachment with modern-day references, as tourists roam the streets and characters use cell phones to translate ancient Greek texts. Piñeiro’s longtime collaborators Agustina Muñoz, María Villar, and Gabi Saidón provide voiceover narration, while the film reflects on Pavese’s own tragic life, as he died by suicide in his hometown.
As in his previous works, Piñeiro challenges traditional narrative structures, crafting a sensorial and textured film that defies easy categorization. You Burn Me continues Piñeiro’s exploration of literary adaptations, pushing the boundaries of cinematographic language and offering a deeply personal vision.
The film’s North American release will include Preface for the Little Dialogue, a brand-new six-minute short featuring Piñeiro’s voiceover as an introduction to the feature. In New York, Anthology Film Archives will also present a curated series of films that influenced You Burn Me, including works by Mariano Llinás, Michelangelo Antonioni, Danièle Huillet, and Jean-Marie Straub. The American Cinematheque in Los Angeles will host Piñeiro’s first complete retrospective in conjunction with the film’s release.
You Burn Me (Tú me abrasas) is a 2024 Argentine/Spanish film, 64 minutes, in Spanish with English subtitles. Directed and written by Matías Piñeiro, produced by Garbiñe Ortega, Piñeiro, and Melanie Schapiro, with cinematography by Tomas Paula Marques and Piñeiro. The film stars Gabi Saidón, María Villar, Maria Inês Gonçalves, Agustina Muñoz, Ana Cris Barragán, Michelle Yoon, and Katarina Burin. A Cinema Guild release.