Into the Great Silence – the German documentary about Carthusians, which has received rave reviews and drawn big audiences in Europe, finally has a US distributor.

In addition, Zeitgeist films has acquired the U.S. distribution rights for the film Into Great Silence, a documentary about the Carthusian Order monastery in the French Alps. Cinematical interviewed the film’s director, Philip Groening, at Sundance in January. Zeitgeist faces a challenge: marketing a nearly three-hour documentary that contains almost no dialogue, because the filmmakers respected the monastery’s vows of silence. (Perhaps they could persuade Morgan Freeman to record narration? I hope not.) The distributor is planning a release timeframe of next February or March.

Thanks to the commentor who pointed out the Zeitgeist page on the film – bookmark to keep up with showings. So far – NYC in February.

Another reader writes from Germany:

just wanted to give the additional information, that amazon.de this week released "die große Stille" as DVD. I don’t know if they deliver to the US, and if the DVD is running on US DVD players. If this were the case, one might as well watch the "German" version of the film, as there is almost no talk …

Here’s the German Amazon page – are the systems compatible?