Italian
Boris Guts‘ “Deaf Lovers,” an Istanbul-set romantic drama, has been acquired by Antipode Sales & Distribution for global sales.
Already a noteworthy title in this year’s Tallinn Black Nights competition lineup, the film garnered extra attention last week when the State Film Agency of Ukraine called on the fest to pull the film from its lineup. Tallinn removed “Deaf Lovers” from its Standing with Ukraine program but refused to pull it from the program entirely.
“Deaf Lovers” tells a contemporary story about a woman from Ukraine and a man from Russia who meet in Istanbul and kick off a penniless vacation romance. Both are, as the title implies, also deaf and worried about the future that awaits them back home.
“I wanted to create a film that shows how war destroys our humanity and, most importantly, it kills love,” Guts tells Variety. “We stop hearing and understanding each other. The war in Ukraine is a terrible tragedy, and cinema must tell about it loudly every day. The impulse of the filming was the war and my emigration, which was a matter of principle. I never meant to live in an aggressor country. Plus, surely, I was informed by officials – that there would be persecution and arrest for my anti-war position.”
Popular on Variety Making the characters deaf serves not only to create a unique dynamic in the relationship of the film’s protagonists but is also “a metaphor for the fact that two native countries for me – my grandmother is Ukrainian – have stopped ‘hearing’ each other.”
According to Antipode’s sales team, “We had been closely following the work of independent filmmaker Boris Guts for a long time. We are fascinated by Boris’s constant search, his boldness and ability to seamlessly shift between genres, from romantic comedy to political thriller. The director experiments with low budgets and minimal resources — two of his five films were shot on smartphone and iPhone — yet they deliver a powerful punch.”
“In each of his films, Guts explores the question: is it easy to be young? He tackles profound existential themes, including the grief of losing loved ones, resistance against oppressive regimes, and the realities of war. Amid the chaos of war, where everyone struggles to ‘live their own life,’ the director draws genuine emotion from the everyday and conveys a poignant anti-war message,” the company adds.
Antipode didn’t directly respond to Tallinn’s removal of “Deaf Lovers” from the Stand With Ukraine section, but the company has been clear about its stance on the conflict, which mirrors that of Guts.
“After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it became evident to us — and to the filmmaker — that Ukraine is the victim, and Russia is the aggressor,” the company insists. “For us, this distinction defines the moral divide. Yet life persists, its relentless flow generating countless nuances and meanings — meanings that cinema strives to capture.”
