British label Eureka Entertainment will add to its Blu-ray catalog
Daughter of the Nile,
The Olive Tree,
The Entity, and
Harmonium.
Daughter of the Nile
Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien (The Assassin, Three Times, Flight of the Red Balloon) followed up his highly acclaimed Coming of Age trilogy of films with Daughter of the Nile, a rich and poignant drama about a young woman struggling to support her family amidst the violent and neon-soaked milieu of 1980's Taipei.
Lin (Lin Hsiao-yang) works as a waitress in a fried chicken restaurant, attends night school and pines after her brother's friend, local gigolo Ah-sang (Fan Yang). Increasingly constrained by the casual brutality of the world around her, Lin finds escape imagining herself as the titular Daughter of the Nile, a character from her favourite manga series.
Based on the personal experiences of screenwriter, Chu T'ien-wen (Millennium Mambo; Goodbye South, Goodbye; City of Sadness) Daughter of the Nile is a profoundly moving observation of marginalised youth. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present the film from a new 4K restoration, available for the first time on Blu-ray and DVD in a new Dual-Format edition.
Special Features:
- NEW 4K restoration
- Uncompressed PCM soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Optional English subtitles
- A new interview with Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns
- Theatrical Trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring new and archival writing
STREET DATE: MAY 22.
The Olive Tree
From Goya Award Winner and internationally acclaimed director Icíar Bollaín (Even the Rain, Take My Eyes), The Olive Tree follows a wilful and spirited young woman named Alma who embarks on a journey from the East coast of Spain to Germany in order to retrieve an ancient olive tree precious to her ailing grandfather. With the help of a variety of friends & new acquaintances, she pulls everyone she encounters into her plan with unexpected consequences for all involved.
The powerful feature film which stars Anna Castillo, Javier Gutiérrez and Pep Ambròs was written by Paul Laverty, winner of the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival for Sweet Sixteen. Laverty is also well-known for penning Ken Loach s Palme d Or winner The Wind that Shakes the Barley, the Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize Winner The Angels Share and the BAFTA Award-winning I, Daniel Blake.
Special Features:
- Booklet featuring new writing about the film by Jason Wood
- Optional English Subtitles
STREET DATE: MAY 15.
The Entity
Academy Award nominee Barbara Hershey stars as Carla Moran, a hard-working single mother who, one terrible night is raped in her bedroom by someone or something that she cannot see. Met with sceptical psychiatrists, she is repeatedly attacked in her car, in the bath, and in front of her children. Could this be a case of hysteria, a manifestation of childhood sexual trauma, or something even more horrific?
Now, with a group of daring parapsychologists, Carla will attempt an unthinkable experiment: to seduce, trap and ultimately capture the depraved spectral fury that is The Entity. Eureka Entertainment is proud to present this ground-breaking horror on Blu-ray.
Special Features:
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Trailer
STREET DATE: MAY 15.
Harmonium
From the director of Au Revoir L'Ete and Hospitalité, Kôji Fukada's Harmonium is an off-kilter take on that most venerable of Japanese genres — the family drama, starring Tadanobu Asano (Silence, Ichi The Killer, Journey to the Shore) which screened to great acclaim at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded the Un Certain Regard Jury prize.
In this slow-burn Japanese thriller Toshio invites an old acquaintance, Yasaka (just released from prison) to come and live with his family. Toshio lives above the small workshop that he owns with his wife, Akie, and their daughter, Hotaru. It is not clear why Toshio offers Yasaka a job; it doesn't seem to be out of friendship or goodwill. Akie and Hotaru are wary of the new lodger, but with his persistent charm and goodwill, Yasaka befriends Toshio's wife Akié and as Yasaka starts teaching their daughter Hotaru to play the harmonium, the family's fragile domestic bliss is forever altered.
Director Kôji Fukada is a master of incremental development, drawing the audience into the unfolding outcome.
Special Features:
- Uncompressed PCM soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Optional English subtitles
- A new video interview with director Kôji Fukada
- Theatrical Trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an appreciation of the film by Jason Wood, Director's Statement and Interview with Kôji Fukada
STREET DATE: JUNE 19.