New York-based distribution company Zeitgeist Films has announced the U.S. theatrical release of Teodora Ana Mihai’s La Civil starting on Friday, March 3 in a exclusive engagement at Film Forum in New York City, followed by other cities. The film had its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Un Certain Regard Prize of Courage.
Unfolding with documentary-like precision as it details the human impact of drug cartels in Northern Mexico, La Civil tells the story of Cielo (Arcelia Ramírez, in a galvanizing performance), who learns her daughter Laura has been kidnapped when a baby-faced teenager orders her to pay 150,000 pesos if she wants to see Laura again. With no police support, Cielo embarks on her own investigation, peeling back layers of Mexico’s societal corruption in an increasingly desperate effort to save her child.
Inspired by true events, Belgian-Romanian director Teodora Ana Mihai delivers a bold and suspenseful debut feature, collaborating with Mexican co-screenwriter Habacuc Antonio De Rosario and world-renowned co-producers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Cristian Mungiu, and Michel Franco.
