Region 4 Winners and Losers

Ashes and Diamonds has been released in Region 2 (United Kingdom and Czech Republic) and Region 1 (USA).

The Region 2 UK release is identical to the Region 4 release. The Region 2 Czech Republic release has no extras and is of inferior quality transfer-wise in comparison to the Region 2 UK release as the bit-rate is much lower and it is presented on a single layer DVD5 disc.

The Region 1 Criterion US release has a transfer that is less compressed than other Regional releases, it's average bitrate is 8.3 mb/s and it is the only release that utilises the complete capacity of a dual layered DVD as all the other Regional releases use only a single layer on their versions of the film. It contains the following extras:

* A commentary by film scholar Annette Insdorf, who comments on the film's historical context and content. Annette Insdorf has provided commentaries for fellow Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski's films and also François Truffaut. Her commentaries, speaking from personal experience, are thorough, unique in tone and highly informative.

* Andrzej Wajda: On Ashes and Diamonds, a 36-minute exclusive new interview with the director, assistant director Janusz Morgenstern, and film critic Jerzy Plazewski (36:25) 16x9 enhanced.

* Vintage newsreel on the making of Ashes and Diamonds, a short newsreel, released to Polish cinemas in 1958, used as an original trailer for the film. (1:21)

* Behind-the-scenes production photos, publicity stills, posters and an essay by film critic Paul Coates.

There is also a Region 1 release of Ashes and Diamonds by the distributor Facets, but as was the case with the Facets release of Kanal this version is not as good as the Region 2 UK/Region 4 version or the release in Region 1 from Criterion.

Again, similarly to the first and the second films in the Wajda War Trilogy boxset, The Region 1 Criterion release has a better transfer and extras than the Region 2 and Region 4 releases.