Icarus Films Brings French Filmmaker Raymond Depardon’s 12 Days To Market On Nov. 6 As A Three-Disc DVD Special Edition

Icarus Films will be teaming up with France’s elite film distributor, Distrib Films, for the special edition DVD release of renowned French photographer and documentary filmmaker Raymond Depardon’s 12 Days on Nov. 6.

The film had brief domestic arthouse theatrical run — proceeded by both domestic and international film festival play dates — and arrives on DVD with an ARR of 235 days.

This special edition DVD release from Icarus Films not only includes 12 Days, but two additional films from Depardon — he’s been nominated seven times for César Awards, with wins for Best Short Film: Documentary for both Reporters (1981) and New York, N.Y. (1986) and Best Documentary for Délits Flagrants in 1994.   

The two bonus feature-length documentaries included in this package are Journal De France (2012 - César Awards nominee for Best Documentary) and France (aka: Les Habitants).   

As to the lead film in the collection, 12 Days, this is cinéma vérité filmmaking at its very best.   Simple, direct and profound.  

In 2013 France passed a law that took the decision-making process solely out of the realm of medical professionals when it comes to patients who have been involuntarily remanded to any mental hospital.   Within 12 days of being admitted, the individual must be allowed to appear before a Freedom and Detention Judge for a hearing.   

Depardon hit upon the idea of filming these hearings — he recorded 72 in all at Lyon, France’s Vinatier Hospital, using a three-camera set-up.   One of the cameras was simply an overall (wide-shot) view of the proceeding, the second was locked onto the mental patient and the third was fixed on the judge.   Simon Jacquet handled the editing (he also worked on Depardon’s Journal de France) and in the process we get an “Alice in Wonderland” view of a world not familiar to most.   

Sure, some of the patients are clearly “out there,” while others seem to have it together, which begs the question.   What is; who is sane?   

The other two films in the mix are cinéma vérité travelogues of France — not the Parisian, France that we are used to, but the people and places of the backroads and villages of France … fascinating and insightful. 

As a bonus, Icarus Films is including a booklet of essays with this three-disc collection.   All three films are presented in French with English subtitles.

Also arriving on DVD on Nov. 6 from the KimStim Collection is Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya’s award-winning thriller, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts.

As with the Distrib Films release of 12 Days, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts has also had brief domestic arthouse theatrical run and arrives on DVD with an ARR of 137.

The exotic backdrop of the Indonesian island of Sumba (about 300 miles east, northeast of Darwin, Australia) is home to Marlina (Marsha Timothy — The Raid 2, The Forbidden Door), a recent widow who lives alone.   One day, quite out of the blue, a thug by the name of Markus (Egy Fedly) shows up at her door and matter-of-factly tells her that he — and his gang — are going to rob her … and rape her.

Based on an actual events, Surya has crafted her story into a film that is atypical of traditional Indonesian films — heavy on dramas, romances and international action flicks.   Instead of accepting her fate, which is required of women in Indonesia’s patriarchal society, Marlina decides to fight back.

Right on cue the gang Markus promised arrives and they set about to clean her out — all of her farm animals are carted off.   He then demands that she cater to his remaining comrades with a home-cooked meal and then they will take their turn with her.   

Let’s just say Markus picked the wrong house!   She not only poisons her “dinner guests,” but murders and decapitates, Markus, her rapist and then sets out on a journey across the island to let everyone she meets that she is not going to take it any longer, from anybody … period!!!!   

Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts includes a behind the scenes featurette and a video session with filmmaker Mouly Surya.   The film is presented in Indonesian with English subtitles.