Dersu Uzala Blu-ray

Australian label Via Vision Entertainment has provided us with a promotional video for its upcoming Blu-ray release of Akira Kurosawa's Dersu Uzala (1975). The release will be available for purchase on September 28.

Label description: Dersu Uzala is the enthralling tale of an eccentric Mongolian frontiersman (Maxim Munzuk) who is taken on as a guide by a Soviet surveying crew. While the soldiers at first perceive Dersu as a naive and comical relic of an uncivilized age, he quickly proves himself otherwise with displays of ingenuity and bravery unmatched by any member of the inexperienced mapping team, on more than one occasion becoming their unlikely savior. An amazing true story based on the memoir by Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev.

Filmed in the far reaches of Siberia, it took over two years for Director Akira Kurosawa to complete this timeless masterpiece of cinema which was shot in 70mm and was honored with the Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film in 1976.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• NEW Audio commentary by Japanese film historian Stuart Galbraith IV
• NEW Mapping Kurosawa: A History of Dersu Uzala – with film writer and historian Michael Brooke
• NEW Sound of the Taiga – video essay by music historian David Schecter on the score
• Actor Yuri Solomin on writer Vladimir Arseniev
• Actor Yuri Solomin on director Akira Kurosawa
• Actor Yuri Solomin discusses the film
• Making the Film – short documentary
• Archive footage of the real Vladimir Arseniev
• Audio:
• Russian DTS HD Master 5.1
• English dub track
• Optional English subtitles