Bill Morrison - The Village Detective : A Song Cycle

In 2016 a fishing boat off the Icelandic coast hauled up four reels of Derevensky detektiv ('The Village Detective'), a Soviet-era film starring the well-known Russian actor Mikhail Zharov. The discovery led filmmaker Bill Morrison (Dawson City: Frozen Time) on a fascinating cinematic odyssey.

The decayed footage is woven together with clips from Zharov’s lengthy filmography, and an entrancing score by David Lang, to tell the story of its star - and of Soviet cinema itself.
Morrison creates a unique and mesmerising document, reflecting how life, history, and art intersect and endure forever on film.

Presented from the new director-approved 4K transfer, our region-free Blu-ray features an exclusive, newly filmed interview with filmmaker Bill Morrison, a selection of his earlier short film works including Beyond Zero: 1914-1918 (2014) and The Unchanging Sea (2018), plus a booklet with new writing by film historian Peter Walsh.    

FILMS
-The Village Detective: A Song Cycle (2021) presented from a 4K master, supervised and approved by director Bill Morrison
-An exclusive, newly filmed interview with Bill Morrison.
Bill Morrison’s short films:
- Beyond Zero: 1914-1918 (2014, 41 mins)
- The Unchanging Sea (2018, 30 mins)
- Sunken Films (2020, 11 minutes)
- Let Me Come In (2021, 11 minutes)

FEATURES
-Trailer
-Booklet with a new essay on the film by writer and film historian Peter Walsh.

USA, 2021
Length / The Village Detective: 81 minutes
Length / Special features: 112 minutes
Sound: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio /
2.0 Stereo LPCM (48khz/16-bit)
Colour / Black and white
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Language: English, Russian
Subtitles: English

Blu-Ray BD50 / 1080p / 24fps / Region ABC
Release Date: 26 February 2024