Second Run DVD

Russia 1993
Length / Main Feature: 139 minutes
Length / Special Feature: 20 minutes
Sound: Original mono (restored)
Black & White 1.33:1 full frame
Language: Russian
Subtitles: English On/Off

PAL R0 RRP: £12.99
Release Date: 27th August 2007
Second Run DVD 026

"I would like the film to answer the need for community - to show how people are tied together, sometimes paradoxically" Artur Aristakisyan

Palms is Aristakisyan's astonishing portrait of people who live on the margins of life and exist outside normal society. Profound, spiritual and hallucinatory, Palms is remarkable at every level and one of the most visionary films of recent years.

Narrated by the director addressing his unborn son, the film is compassionate, revelatory and bold in its originality and was awarded the NIKA (Russian Oscar) for Best Documentary in 1994. This is its first-ever release on DVD.

- Newly filmed interview with director Artur Aristakisyan.
- Digital transfer with restored image and sound, approved by the Director.
- New and improved English subtitle translation.
- Optimal quality dual layer disc.
- Booklet featuring a new Essay by Graeme Hobbs.

Written and Directed by Artur Aristakisyan

Filmed and Edited by Artur Aristakisyan

Music of Giuseppe Verdi and a verse by Naum Kaplan

"A wholly remarkable experience" The Guardian

". inspiring, for Aristakisyan has fashioned a transcendent vision of light, a parable, a manifesto, a desperate poetic paen to these invisible people, and to the dramatic density of their lives" Sight & Sound

"Comparisons have been made with Tarkovsky and Pasolini, but Aristakisyan deserves to be regarded as an uniquely individual filmmaker" Empire

Empire - 4 stars
The Guardian - 4 stars
Neon - 4 stars
The Big Issue - 4 stars
Time Out - Critic's Choice