“Western” has found a home. Cinema Guild has snagged the U.S. rights to Valeska Grisebach’s thriller with a theatrical release planned for early 2018, Variety reports. Grisebach is among the project’s producers, as is fellow German filmmaker Maren Ade (“Toni Erdmann”).

Set in rural Bulgaria, “Western” is penned by Grisebach and centers on a group of German construction workers who are installing a hydroelectric plant. “The foreign land awakens the men’s sense of adventure, but tensions mount when the strong, silent newcomer to the group starts mixing with the local villagers in a story of masculinity and xenophobia on the contemporary frontier of Eastern Europe,” the source summarizes. Newcomer Meinhard Neumann stars in the pic, which made its world premiere at Cannes to rave reviews.

“I grew up with the Western genre, sitting in front of a TV set in 1970s West Berlin. I had a desire to return to that genre; it captivated me in a profound way,” Grisebach told us. She explained, “I wanted to grapple with the lonely, melancholic heroes and male mythology as portrayed in the Western. The genre’s modernism is exciting: Despite all its conservative elements, it attempts to portray something about the construction of society and the responsibility of the individual. And yet, it still reflects on its own contradictions. The search for independence — or to leave everything behind — always contends with the longing to arrive somewhere, to belong, and is often taken to the point of opportunism.”

“Valeska Grisebach uses the tropes of the western genre to tell a story that resonates globally,” commented Peter Kelly, Cinema Guild Director of Distribution. “‘Western’ is a film that really stuck with us from the first time we saw it and we’re sure it will have a similar effect on audiences.”

Grisebach previously wrote and directed 2006’s “Longing” and 2001’s “Be My Star.”