After opening theatrically in June to 4-star reviews and a Film of the Week accolade in The Guardian, Arcadia, which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival last year, will be released by the BFI on DVD in August.

BAFTA Award-winning director Paul Wright (For Those in Peril) explores our complex connection to the land we live in with an archival remix drawn from more than 100 years of Britain on film, incorporating around 100 films/TV programmes, set to a new score by Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Will Gregory (Goldfrapp).

Arcadia embarks on a visceral sensory journey through the seasons, exploring the beauty, brutality, magic and madness of our changing relationship with both the land and each other. This fresh new work crafted from the past is a folk horror wrapped in an archive film; get ready for a very strange trip indeed…

Using footage from the BFI National Archive (particularly BFI Player’s Britain on Film collection) and regional archives, Paul Wright creates a mosaic of contrasting images, sounds and moods, taking in folk carnivals and masked parades, hunting and harvesting, communes and raves, mechanisation, environmental issues, fires, floods, storms and much more. Arcadia reminds us what happens when our connection to nature, and indeed each other, frays and unravels.

Musicians Adrian Utley and Will Gregory, who collaborate outside of their respective bands, created the original score, influenced by a mixture of genres – electronic, classical, folk and punk. The score also features the voice of legendary folk singer Anne Briggs.

A BFI Player Arcadia collection, featuring many of the original films, can be explored here: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/collection/arcadia

The Arcadia website is here: https://www.arcadia.film/

Arcadia will be released on UK DVD on 20 August 2018 by the BFI at the RRP of £19.99.

Special features:

• Arcadia Q&A (2018, 27 mins):Paul Wright, Adrian Utley and Will Gregory discuss the film at BFI Southbank
• A Day in the Hayfields (1904, 4 mins): Edwardian midsummer captured on film
• Tame Animals at Work (1909, 6 mins): strange scenes from a private zoo
• Championship Ploughing Match (1912, 1 min): newsreel item
• Ancient Cornish Custom (1921, 1 min): the Furry Dance in St Ives
• The ‘Kibbo Kift’ (1923, 1 min): a meeting of the folkloric social movement
• ‘’Oppin’ Makes You ’Earty!’ (1925, 1 min): hop-picking in Kent
• Old Norse Vikings Festival (1927, 4 mins): Shetland’s Up Helly Aa
• Once We Were Four (1942, 9 mins): young rabbits face the perils of rural Britain
• Peter and Ruby (1973, 35 mins): poignant portrait of traditional Dartmoor farmers
• Theatrical trailer (2018, 2 mins)
• Illustrated booklet featuring writing by Simon McCallum, Stanley Donwood and Adrian Utley; director Paul Wright interviewed by Adam Scovell and full film credits