Second Run present the world Blu-ray premiere of Karel Kachyňa’s COACH TO VIENNA From Karel Kachyňa, director of The Ear (Ucho), Coach to Vienna is a fearless moral examination of the complexities of war. In the last days of the World War Two, a young Czech widow whose husband has been executed by Nazi occupiers is forced to transport two German soldiers to the Austrian border. As they journey through a seemingly endless forest, a barbed tale of hatred, revenge and unexpected sympathies unfolds. (March)

Icon Film Distribution’s brand-new standalone edition of the Icon Film Channel (IFC),  will be available on major app stores this week. After the success of the streaming service’s exclusive launch this April on Amazon Prime, launching its offering as a standalone IFC app will provide yet more critically acclaimed and award-winning films that users can now watch anywhere, any time. The channel will launch with hundreds of titles from Icon’s substantial catalogue, which includes modern masterpiece Drive, starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. further titles include the highly impactful crime drama The Whistleblower, starring Rachel Weisz, Benedict Cumberbatch and Vanessa Redgrave.

The wonderfully ambitious bijou Blu-ray company Powerhouse Indicator is – believe it or not — five years old! Happy Birthday! And I’m sure I’m not alone in being grateful for all the neglected filmic gems the company has dusted off (and spruced up). Such as…COLUMBIA NOIR #4: WALK A CROOKED MILE (1948), WALK EAST ON BEACON! (1952), PUSHOVER (1954), A BULLET IS WAITING (1954), CHICAGO SYNDICATE (1955) and THE BROTHERS RICO (1957)

Second Run will release Zbyněk Brynych’s stunning THE FIFTH HORSEMAN IS FEAR on Blu-ray and DVD on 30 August 2021. Set in occupied Prague in 1941, this powerful tale is informed as much by Czech resistance to Soviet impositions as it is by the torments of the Nazi era. Focussing on the intense anxiety, paranoia and terror prevalent in any totalitarian system, Brynych’s THE FIFTH HORSEMAN IS FEAR subverts its historical context, creating a frighteningly relevant portrait of a society ruled by fear.

Second Run are to issue two works by the radical Catalan filmmaker Pere Portabella, The Silence Before Bach and Mudanza. The acclaimed, surreal documentary The Silence Before Bach comprises a series of filmed vignettes, united by the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Investigating the profound relationship between image and music, Portabella’s opulent reverie leads us through the centuries led by the hand of J. S. Bach. Mudanza records the removal of furniture and objects from the home and museum of the García-Lorca family in Granada, leaving visitors able to move freely amongst its empty spaces. Portabella’s film makes poet Federico García Lorca’s emotive and historic absence ever more powerful, evident and heartfelt.

THE VERDICT IS IN: REMARKABLE AWARD-WINNING DEBUT COMES TO THE UK, 12th March 2021.  Sovereign has announced the release of writer/director Raymund Ribay Gutierrez’s harrowing domestic abuse drama, on 12th March, across streaming services. Joy and her six-year-old daughter Angel live in Manila, with her husband, Dante, a small-time criminal. As so often in the past, Dante comes home drunk at night and brutally beats Joy. This time, he also hurts Angel. Joy grabs her daughter and flees to the local police station, to finally get him sent to jail. But Joy is to discover that the search for justice comes at a price. Her case, obstructed by corruption, bureaucracy and seemingly indifferent officials. Lacking witnesses to support her case, and her husband released back onto the street, Joy starts to feel that she and her daughter are increasingly under threat. Verdict was the official Philippine entry to the International Film Category for the Oscars in 2020 and the deserved winner of the prestigious Horizons Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. It is in good company – previous winners include 2015’s Free In Deed, and Court (2014), about the Indian legal system. Verdict is equally compelling, an affecting examination of the dubious notion of ‘justice for all’.  Filmed in a semi-documentary style, Verdict stars Max Eigenman, who won an Asia Pacific award for her bruised, and bruising, role, and Kristoffer King, who sadly died last year. The timely film casts an unflinching gaze at a difficult subject, too often ignored – the dark heart of male violence and its appalling consequences; and how the law courts seems to favour only the fortunate and connected – with barely a concern for the victims.  Gutierrez’s remarkably confident debut feature is extremely real, at times, blood-boilingly infuriating, and demands to be seen.

Coming to DVD, Blu-ray and a Collector’s Edition Steelbook 28th September 2020
The creators of “Your Name” return with the UK box office hit drama that earlier in the year became Japan’s first anime entry for the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film in over 20 years. Now coming to Blu-ray, DVD and a Collector’s Edition, the UK critically acclaimed Weathering With You is an uplifting timely arrival for the world we find ourselves in. Continue reading →

Following on from his extraordinary works Horse Money, Colossal Youth, Casa de Lava and Blood, VITALINA VARELA is the latest film from Pedro Costa. Winner of the prestigious ‘Best Film’ and ‘Best Actress’ Awards at the 2019 Locarno Film Festival, and the Silver Hugo Jury Prize at the Chicago International Film Festival, VITALINA VARELA also polled at #10 in Sight & Sound magazine’s ‘50 Best Films of 2019’. Costa’s film follows the titular Vitalina, a woman left behind in Cape Verde when her husband leaves to find work in Portugal. Years later, she finally makes the journey to Lisbon herself, but arrives three days after his funeral. Alone and isolated in her late husband’s home, Vitalina is determined to persevere and confront the ghosts of the past…VITALINA VARELA available from Second Run on Blu-ray and DVD from August 2020.