criterionforum.org

From Variety:

Stockholm-based streaming platform Cultpix is moving into physical media distribution, partnering with national film institutes in Hungary, Taiwan, Czech Republic and Estonia for a new Blu-ray label set to launch at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The cult and exploitation cinema platform will debut with four restored titles from partner archives: “Meteo” (1990) from National Film Institute Hungary, “Fantasy of the Deer Warrior” (1961) from Taiwan Film & Audiovisual Institute, “The Man from the First Century” (1962) from Národní filmový archiv in Prague, and “Madness” (1968) from Estonian Film Institute.

Their first release:

The Fantasy of the Deer Warrior

The peaceful animals of a Taiwanese forest live in harmony until a pack of wolves launches a brutal attack. Uncle Deer sacrifices himself defending the community and sends word to his son, the Deer Warrior. But the Deer Warrior is locked in a rivalry with Elk over the affections of the beautiful Miss Dee Miss Deer, a conflict stoked by the scheming Erotic Fox, who conspires with the wolves' leader. Inco Incorporating elements from Aesop's Fables and performed entirely by live-acti on actors in animal costumes, this extraordinary Taiwanese-language fantasy from critic-turned filmmaker Chang Ying was shot in the mountains of Beitou and is widely read as a political allegory of Taiwan under martial law.

Restored in 2K by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI) from a 35mm duplicate negative as part of the Taiwan Film Project, initiated by Taiwan's Ministry of Culture.

Special features:

A Deer in the Ruins of Paradise – On The Fantasy of the Deer Warrior. 20-page essay

Photo and Poster Gallery

Before-and-after-Restoration Video

Theatrical Trailer

Audio commentary with Patrick von Sychowski (Cultpix) and Shih-Ching Tsou (Director/Writer/Producer – Left-Handed Girl)

Foxy Ladies and Bloody Wolves. Video essay by Adrian Smith

Are they only releasing through VS partner labels and not in Europe?

pzadvance wrote: Wed Jul 01, 2026 4:41 pm Are they only releasing through VS partner labels and not in Europe?

I found a listing for a European release so I assume it’s getting European distribution too:
https://www.filmvalvet.se/products/the- ... er-blu-ray

Thanks! Though that insanely costs more to ship within Europe than the VS release does…

Madness

A British spy is hiding from the Nazis among the inmates at a lunatic asylum.

In the closing months World War II, a remote forest asylum is marked for liquidation. As the German troops prepare to lead the patients into the woods, Gestapo officer Windisch arrives with a different mission: he learns that a British agent is hiding among the 583 lunatics. Windisch must unmask the spy before the advancing Soviet army reaches the asylum. He narrows the suspects down to three - a former literary publisher, an army sergeant, and a man convinced he is the Führer himself. But the deeper Windisch probes the patients' impaired logic, the more his own grip on sanity begins to slip.

Hailed as the first truly modernist film in Estonian cinema, this allegory of power, guilt and free will under totalitarianism was shot in Estonia and Latvia.

Jüri Järvet won Best Male Actor at the 1969 Baltic film festival. He was later in Tarkovsky's Solaris.

The absurdist provocation was then banned for decades, and only officially premiered in Moscow in 1987, under Perestroika.

The film was digitally restored by Eesti Digikeskus (2012). The restoration was commissioned by Estonian Film Institute.

STARRING: Jüri Järvet, Voldemar Panso, Mare Garšnek, Vaclovas Blēdis, Valeri Nosik, Bronius Babkauskas PRODUCTION: Tallinnfilm DIRECTOR: Kaljo Kiisk PRODUCER: Arkadi Pessegov

SPECIAL FEATURES
· Poster & Photo Gallery
· Behind the Scenes Documentary
· Interview with Director Kaljo Kiisk
· Audio Commentary with Christian Oberhofer and Tristan Priimägi, Estonian film critic and film historian
· The Sanest Man in the Asylum. 20-page Essay


https://klubbsuper8.com/en/article.php?art=225369846