Adapted by Harold Pinter from Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood's bestselling 1986 novel, The Handmaid's Tale shows a near future scenario where right-wing religious fundamentalists have overthrown the American government and established a repressive puritanical society called the Republic Of Gilead. Environmental disasters, pollution and STDs have left most women infertile, with those remaining capable of bearing children being conscripted as 'handmaids' for the men in the upper hierarchies of the regime, to bear children on behalf of their wives, using the biblical story of Rachel as a model.

Directed by Volker Schlöndorff, whose celebrated 1979 The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) helped introduce his work to an international audience, The Handmaid's Tale features a strong cast that includes Natasha Richardson (who won the Evening Standard award for Best Actress that year for her portrayal of the handmaid), Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall, Elizabeth McGovern, Aidan Quinn and Victoria Tennant and a score by Japanese supremo Ryuichi Sakamoto.

The Handmaid's Tale will be released on UK DVD for the first time on 12th January 2009 at a price to be confirmed by Optimum Home Entertainment. This looks like a movie-only disc.