Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to this year’s Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms by Nadav Lapid and will distribute theatrically and on VOD in the winter.
Tom Mercier stars as a young former Israeli soldier who moves to France in a bid to start a new life and put his military life behind him. Refusing to speak Hebrew and armed only with a French-Hebrew dictionary, he befriends a young bourgeois couple in his search for redemption.
Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade served as co-producer on Synonyms, which is based loosely on Lapid’s experience as a young man who rejected his Israeli heritage and fled to Paris.
Kino Lorber’s acquisitions team are in Cannes scouring for new titles and the company distributed Lapid The Kindergarten Teacher.
CEO and president Richard Lorber brokered the deal with SBS Films international sales manager Kevin Chneiweiss, who also served as executive produced on Synonyms. Saïd Ben Saïd and Michel Merkt produced.
“After our success with Nadav’s powerfully original The Kindergarten Teacher a couple of years ago, we awaited with high expectations his next exploration of the human psyche,” said Lorber. “Synonyms totally blew us away. As formally innovative as it is narratively bold, the film reveals and conceals meaning in each frame. A major auteur has arrived and we can’t wait to host him on screens across North America.”
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