Some festival faves and art house hits you may have missed while they were in theatres last year are now showing up on DVD. French-Georgian director Géla Babluani’s beautifully bleak noir 13 (Tzameti) is well worth checking out if you didn’t catch it during its brief run at Ex-Centris. The story of a desperate young man who finds himself in the middle of a for-profit game of Russian roulette organized for the pleasure of wealthy degenerates, it’s incredibly tense, a real nail-biter of a thriller. The DVD comes with some interesting special features: interviews with the director and the movie’s star, his brother George Babluani, a short film called Sunday’s Game and, most intriguingly, a short piece called “Testimony of a Survivor.” A simply shot interview with a man who claims to be a career player in these deadly games of chance, it’s hard to tell if this is for real or not, although the guy himself is pretty convincing. “Now, of course, I may be insane,” he says at one point, and you’re tempted to believe him.

If you didn’t see Jennifer Baichwal’s Manufactured Landscapes on the big screen, it’s your loss, but don’t miss the best Canadian movie of 2006 when it comes out on video this week as well. The disc features a gallery of photos by the doc’s subject, Edward Burtynsky, that you can look at with commentary from the photographer himself, as well as interviews with him, Baichwal and cinematographer Peter Mettler.

by MARK SLUTSKY