GIVEAWAY: Costa Gavras Blu-Ray Prize Pack Featuring AMEN And CAPITAL

The Cohen Film Collection announced recently that two major films by acclaimed director Costa-Gavras – CAPITAL, the Oscar winner’s most recent feature, and AMEN, his César-winning historical drama from 2002 – have been digitally remastered and will be released in deluxe Blu-ray and DVD editions on June 10, 2014. The Blu-rays will have SRPs of $34.98 each and the DVDs will have SRPs of $24.98 each.

WAMG invites you to enter to win one of 3 Prize Packs containing the two films on Blu-ray.

ENTER YOUR NAME AND E-MAIL IN OUR COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.  WE WILL CONTACT YOU IF YOU ARE A WINNER.

OFFICIAL RULES:

1. YOU MUST BE A US RESIDENT. PRIZE WILL ONLY BE SHIPPED TO US ADDRESSES. NO P.O. BOXES. NO DUPLICATE ADDRESSES.

2. WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN FROM ALL QUALIFYING ENTRIES.  NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.  PRIZES WILL NOT BE SUBSTITUTED OR EXCHANGED.

CONTEST ENDS – TUESDAY, JUNE 24th, 11:59p est.

Since his debut in 1965, the Greek-born, French-based filmmaker Costa-Gavras has created some of the screen’s most impassioned works about man’s battle against injustice, often fact-based dramas charged with the urgency of a thriller – from the story of a Greek political assassination in Z, an Uruguayan kidnapping and torture in State of Siege, to the Jack Lemmon-starring Missing, the tragic tale of an American journalist’s murder during the Chilean coup of 1973.

CAPITAL and AMEN continue in the director’s tradition of shining a searing light on corruption and institutionalized evil.

CAPITAL, based on the novel by Stephane Osmont and a prize winner at the San Sebastian Film Festival, is a fast-paced, darkly comic, suspenseful drama set in the high-stakes world of global finance. When the CEO of France’s Phenix Bank collapses on the golf course, Machiavellian young executive Marc Tourneuil (Gad Elmaleh, Midnight in Paris) is crowned as his replacement. A whirlwind of ruthless ambition, power struggles, greed and deception ensues as Tourneuil’s brutal ascent is jeopardized by a hostile takeover attempt from a large American hedge fund led by Dittmar Rigule (Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment, Miller’s Crossing), erotic distractions from international supermodel Nassim (Liya Kebede, Lord of War), and adversaries with an agenda for destruction.CAPITAL is a pointed commentary on how the Darwinian world of contemporary capitalism plays out across the global financial stage.

Ella Tayor of NPR called it “a wickedly clever … grimly funny thriller. CAPITAL makes for a solid entry in a pretty crowded field of accomplished corporate thrillers, among them The Social Network, Arbitrage, Margin Call and even Inside Job.”

In AMEN, based on Rolf Hochhuth’s play The Deputy, Costa-Gavras creates a powerful and riveting account of the Final Solution that questions how much was known outside of Germany as mass exterminations were carried out in Nazi death camps. Ulrich Tukur (North Face, Solaris) stars as Kurt Gerstein, a German chemist whose work on various governmental health projects leads to his assignment as an SS officer in charge of hygiene.

When he learns that Zyclon B, a toxic cleanser he created to stem the tide of typhoid among German troops, is being used in gas chambers, Gerstein is horrified. But his pleas to officials in Germany, Sweden and the U.S. to stop the genocide fall on deaf ears.

One person who does listen is Riccardo Fontana (Mathieu Kassovitz, La Haine, Amélie, Haywire), a young Jesuit priest with ties to the Vatican and even Pope Pius XII. Ultimately, Gerstein and Fontana must fight a brave but lonely and dangerous battle to save the innocent – and themselves.

“Riveting … AMEN is a must-see,” raved Andrew Sarris in The New York Observer. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called the film “a political thriller of suspense and subtlety. Costa-Gavras has wanted to make AMEN for nearly four decades, and it was worth the wait.” Marc Mohan of The Oregonian said, “Costa-Gavras tells this heartbreaking tale of lost opportunity with an emotional restraint that makes it all the more powerful.”

CAPITAL (2012)
Street date: June 10, 2014
SRP: $34.98 (Blu-ray), $24.98 (DVD)
Running time: 114 minutes, plus extras
Rated R
5.1 Dolby Digital for DVD/DTS-HD Master Audio for Blu-ray
In English and French with English subtitles
Bonus features on both Blu-ray and DVD: interviews with cast and crew.

AMEN (2002)
Street date: June 10, 2014
SRP: $34.98 (Blu-ray), $24.98 (DVD)
Running time: 132 minutes, plus extras
Not rated
5.1 Dolby Digital for DVD/DTS-HD Master Audio for Blu-ray
In English, French, Italian and German with English subtitles

Bonus features on both Blu-ray and DVD: Feature-length audio commentary with director Costa-Gavras and flm critic Wade Major; 2014 re-release trailer; BBC documentary “Pope Pius XII: The Pope, the Jews and the Nazis.”