Newly restored by the BFI National Archive, with a new score from acclaimed violist/composer Garth Knox and premiered at the 2016 BFI London Film Festival, The Informer is one of the finest British films of the 1920s and deserves a place alongside other silent greats such as Blackmail, A Cottage on Dartmoor and Piccadilly.

The film now comes to DVD and Blu-ray in a Dual Format Edition, released by the BFI on 24 April 2017 at the RRP of £19.99. It contains the silent version alongside the rare sound version which was produced at the same time.

Based on Liam O’Flaherty’s popular novel, this gripping thriller is set among a group of revolutionaries in the newly independent Ireland of 1922. When one of their number, Francis, kills the chief of police he goes on a run but when he returns to Dublin he is cruelly betrayed by his onetime friend, Gypo.

Dual Format edition features:

• A new restoration presented in High Definition and Standard Definition
• The sound version of The Informer (1929, 84 mins)
• Restoration Demonstration (2016, 5 mins)
• A selection of Topical Budget newsreels documenting Irish independence:
  • I Want Peace (1921)
  • Is it the Dawn? (1921)
  • Historic Unionist Conference At Liverpool (1921)
  • Irish Peace Imperilled By Extremists (1921)
  • Further Pictures of the Irish Peace (1921)
  • Surrender of Dublin Castle (1922)
  • British Evacuate Ireland after Hundreds of Years of Occupation (1922)
  • Dublin’s Civil War (1922)
• Booklet with credits, and essays by Bryony Dixon, Garth Knox and Michael Brook