Posted February 27, 2022 09:19 PM by Sean Greenwood
The week of February 28th is a light one, but Universal Pictures Home Entertainment will release Kenneth Branagh's Belfast, starring Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench, Caitriona Balfe, and Ciarán Hinds. Opening in the US back in November 2021, Branagh's film has garnered critical acclaim and has been nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor (Hinds), Best Supporting Actress (Dench), Best Director and Best Picture.
Official synopsis: From lauded director Kenneth Branagh, and starring an acclaimed ensemble cast, Belfast is a personal and joyful story about the power of memory, set in late 1960s Northern Ireland.
At the center of the film is Buddy, a young boy on the cusp of adolescence, whose life is filled with familial love, childhood hijinks, and a blossoming romance. Yet, with his beloved hometown caught up in increasing turmoil, his family faces a momentous choice: hope the conflict will pass or leave everything they know behind for a new life.
Universal's Blu-ray of Belfast contains DTS-HD MA 7.1 audio. Extras include audio commentary with Branagh, an alternate ending featuring Branagh, deleted scenes and featurettes.
Also new this week is Jonas Poher Rasmussen's Flee, featuring the voices of Daniel Karimyar, Fardin Mijdzadeh, Milad Eskandari, and Georg Jagunov. This Danish animated docudrama has made history, becoming Oscar-nominated for Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film, the first film to be nominated in all three categories.
Official description: Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Flee tells the story of Amin Nawabi as he grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, one that threatens to derail the life he has built for himself and his soon to be husband. Recounted mostly through animation to director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, he tells for the first time the story of his extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan.
Decal's Blu-ray of Flee contains a New York Film Festival Q&A with Jonas Poher Rasmussen as an extra.
New this week from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is a Blu-ray for The Batman: The Complete Series (2004-2008). The six-disc box set contains all 65 episodes along with a new featurette The Dark Dynasty Continues, as well as six legacy featurettes and two quizzes.
Then on Friday this week, Earmusic will release Marillion: An Hour Before It's Dark. The British rock band's new studio album will be released on various formats, including a standalone Blu-ray with a 96kHz, 24-bit stereo mix, as well as a DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix. Video content is on board as well, including a making of documentary and song performances.
Finally this week, Friday also sees the release of another classical music Blu-ray from Deutsche Grammophon. This time, it's a release of Bach: St. John Passion, conducted on Good Friday 2021 by John Eliot Gardiner with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists from the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, England. Deutsche Grammophon advertise this release as a deluxe edition, with 2 CDs and the Blu-ray housed in a digipack with a booklet. In addition to containing the film of the performance, the Blu-ray also contains Dolby Atmos audio.