Beta Cinema will be responsible for worldwide sales of Keep Her Quiet, a new English-language investigative thriller starring Zar Amir, who won the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress award for The Holy Spider, Jonathan Pryce, who won an Oscar for The Two Popes, and Amir El-Masri, who starred in Limbo and Giant. The project was previously announced exclusively by Variety.
Beta Cinema will begin international sales in upcoming European film markets.
“Keep Her Quiet” tells the story of Amir, a Washington, D.C.-based journalist whose investigation into unexplained disappearances in western China puts her and her family in danger.
The film is inspired by the true story of the investigative journalist whose reporting brought international attention to the crisis, as well as the testimonies of numerous survivors of China’s ongoing “re-education” program in Xinjiang.
The film is directed by Franz Böhm and co-directed by Uighur filmmaker Sri Kurban. Boehm’s debut feature documentary Dear Future Children won the Audience Award at Hot Docs in 2021, and last year he won the BAFTA for Best British Short Film for Rock, Paper, Scissors. Kurban fled political persecution in Xinjiang with his family in 1999. Kurban previously co-directed the documentary “Run, Don’t Walk” (2014) and wrote and directed the short film “Hayat: Leben” (2019).
The cast also includes up-and-coming Uyghur talent Bahargul Basco, Britain’s Hiftu Kasem (Something in the Water, Killing Eve), and Eleanor Matsuura (Wonder Woman, Spooks).
“Keep Her Quiet” was produced by Johannes Schubert of the German-Austrian music collective Schubert, the producer of this year’s Berlinale competition title “Rose” and Jessica Hausner’s Cannes competition title “Club Zero.” He is joined by Switzerland’s Contrast Film (Stefan Eichenberger), Sweden’s Platform Productions (Eric Hemendorf, producer of Triangle, Force Majeure and The Square) and Austria’s Panama Film (Rixie Frank and David Bohun, producer of The Theory of Everything). Executive producers include Malte Grunert, Anita Gou, Caroline Clarke and Christina Bergeson.
Schubert said, “The film combines creative authenticity with escalating urgency, and unfolds as a classic high-stakes political thriller driven by fearless journalism and real-world danger against oppression.”
Currently in post-production, the film is already scheduled for distribution throughout the German-speaking world, with participation from Pandora Film (Germany), Filmladen Filmverleih (Austria) and Filmcoopi (Switzerland).
