Blu-ray Release: The Sacred Spirit

Blu-ray Release Date: July 19, 2022
Price: Blu-ray $19.99
Studio: Arrow/MVD

The uncanny, the unsettling, and the unexpected combine to devastating effect in The Sacred Spirit, the 2021 extraordinary debut feature from Spanish writer-director Chema Garcia Ibarra.

A missing girl. A community in shock. Jose Manuel lives a quiet life. He works in his modest tapas bar, takes care of his elderly mother and attends weekly meetings of the Ovni-Levante, a group of devoted UFO enthusiasts who gather after hours at the office of a local estate agent to exchange information about extraterrestrial messages and alien abductions. When their leader dies unexpectedly, only Jose is left to know the cosmic secret that could alter the future of humanity. And only Jose knows what he must do.

As if Ken Loach and Aki Kaurismaki remade the The X-Files, The Sacred Spirit–a comedy-drama-sci-fi hybrid–is a provocative, humane, and unsparing vision that marks the arrival of a unique new voice in genre cinema.

Arrow has provided a healthy complement of features for the 2-disc limited edition Blu-ray:

• High Definition Blu-Ray (1080p) presentation
• Exclusive second disc containing a selection of award-winning short films by director Chema Garcia Ibarra
• Fully illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Shelagh Rowan-Legg, author of The Spanish Fantastic: Contemporary Filmmaking in Horror, Fantasy, and Sci-fi
• Fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Oink Creative
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Oink Creative
• DISC 1 – FEATURE & EXTRAS
• High Definition Blu-Ray (1080p) presentation
• DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Beyond the Eye of Horus, a visual essay about the use of surveillance and Egyptology in The Sacred Spirit by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
• Pyramid Scheme, a visual essay examining conspiracy, class and capitalism in The Sacred Spirit by Josh Nelson
• Domestic Science Fiction, an interview with writer-director Chema Garcia Ibarra
• Behind the Scenes, four short featurettes shot during production
• Elche Vision, a series of six location reports about the making of the film, hosted by actress Lorena Iglesias in character as Esther Armengol, presenter of The Sacred Spirit’s fictional local TV show
• Promotional videos in which the characters of The Sacred Spirit talk about themselves
• Uncut TV Clips, background television broadcasts shot especially for the film and presented here in full
• Image gallery
• Theatrical trailer
• DISC 2 – DOMESTIC SCI-FI: THE SHORT FILMS OF CHEMA GARCIA IBARRA (LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE)
• The Attack of the Robots from Nebula-5 (2008) 7 mins, Sundance Film Festival Award Winner
• Protoparticles (2013) 8 mins, Sundance Film Festival Award Winner
• Mystery (2013) 12 mins, Berlin INternational Film Festival Award Winner
• Uranes (2014) 59 mins
• The Disco Shines (2016) 12 mins, Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema Award Winner
• The Golden Legend (2019) 11 mins, Ann Arbor Film Festival Award Winner