NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (July 2019): Criterion have transferred Agnieszka Holland's Europa Europa to a special edition director-approved Blu-ray. via a "New 2K digital restoration, supervised by director Agnieszka Holland". It is on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate. It looks excellent with visible grain texture, realistic colors and modest depth in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio. There is impressive detail visible in close-ups. The image quality appears flawless and looks strong in-motion.

NOTE: We have added 24 more large resolution Criterion Blu-ray captures for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE.

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use a linear PCM mono track (24-bit) in the original German language. The film has a moving score by Zbigniew Preisner (Kielsowski's Dekalog, Three Colors, The Double Life of Veronique, Agnieszka Holland's Olivier, Olivier etc.) that sounds excellent in the uncompressed transfer. The audio is authentically flat and dialogue clean and clear. Criterion offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

Criterion include an audio commentary from 2008 featuring Holland. She discusses how she met with Salomon Perel to determine the validity of some of the facts of his incredible story, the low budget of the production, how important his penis was to the story when viewing a circumcision early in the film, her ambivalence to showing the 'Nazi reality', and talking about her own father who was a Polish Jew... among many other details. It's excellent. There is also a new 1/4 hour interview with Holland recorded for the Criterion Collection in Warsaw in 2019. She talks about how the story attracted her and how to retell it onscreen, the themes of identity etc. There is also a 20-minute interview actor Marco Hofschneider recorded for the Criterion Collection in Berlin in 2019. He talks about the casing and how he got the part, what he learned and how he ses it as a 'coming of age' story. There is a new 13-minute video essay, written and narrated by film scholar Annette Insdorf who gives insight into the films more subtle details. Lastly is a 20-minute interview with Salomon "Sally" Perel, on whose wartime experiences Europa Europa is based, was recorded for the Criterion Collection in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2019. The package has a liner notes booklet with an essay by film critic Amy Taubin.

Europa Europa is a brilliant and impacting film of an incredibly true story. It's about survival and identity in a harrowing time. It's fascinating and wonderfully realized by Holland. It's a masterpiece. The Criterion Bu-ray package gets a very strong recommendations. This is a film that everyone should see. 

Gary Tooze