Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy: Standard Edition – Deaf Crocodile (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Yugoslavia/Czechoslovakia/Croatia, 1981
Director: Dusan Vukotic
Writers: Milos Macourek, Dusan Vukotic
Cast: Ljubisa Samardzic, Zarko Potocnjak, Lucie Zulová, Jasminka Alic, Ksenia Prohaska, Rene Bitorajac, Edo Perocevic

Release Date: October 14th, 2025
Approximate Running Time: 88 Minutes 54 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Monoo Croatian
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region A
Retail Price: $29.95

"a struggling writer, Robert (Zarko Potocnjak), who dreams up a story of gold-skinned alien androids named Andra, Targo, and Ulu from a distant planet. Incredibly, his fictional alien creations become reality, causing chaos in his relationship with his girlfriend, Biba (Lucie Zulová), and threatening his small seaside village." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.25/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "The long-unavailable Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy has been beautifully restored in 4K by Deaf Crocodile and Zagreb Film for this release from the best-surviving 35mm elements."

Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 38.8 GB

Feature: 24.3 GB

This is another solid encode from Fidelity in Motion. The source is in excellent shape; flesh tones and colors look correct, image clarity and black levels are strong, compression is solid, and the image looks organic.

Audio: 4.25/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in Croatian with removable English subtitles. The audio is clean, clear, and balanced, and ambient sounds are well represented.

Extras:

Extras for this release an audio commentary with film historian Samm Deighan, and five short films directed by Dusan Vukotic; Cow On The Moon (10 minutes 40 seconds, 1.37:1 aspect ratio, LPCM mono, no dialogue, no English subtitles), Piccolo (9 minutes 30 seconds, 1.37:1 aspect ratio, LPCM mono, no dialogue, no English subtitles), 1001 Drawings (14 minutes 24 seconds, 1.37:1 aspect ratio, LPCM mono Croatian with removable English subtitles), The Substitute (9 minutes 48 seconds, 1.37:1 aspect ratio, LPCM mono, no dialogue, no English subtitles) and Ars Gratia Artis (8 minutes 55 seconds, 1.37:1 aspect ratio, LPCM mono, no dialogue, no English subtitles), and a 16-page booklet with an essay titled Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy written by Jennifer Lynde Barker.

Krava na mjesecu (Cow On The Moon): In Vukotic’s delightfully jazzy, beatnik-influenced cartoon, an adorable young girl creates a rocket ship to annoy a hipster teenage boy.

Piccolo: Two neighbors wage war over a noisy harmonica in Vukotic’s animated short featuring stunning mid-century artwork and design.

1001 crtez (1001 Drawings): A fascinating B&W short mixing live action and animation to reveal how cartoons are drawn.

Surogat (The Substitute): A typical Everyman spends a day at the beach where everything is inflatable, from his tent to the BBQ grill to a toothy shark. Vukotic’s Oscar-winning short is a masterpiece of angular mid-century style.”

Ars Gratia Artis: In Vukotic’s surreal blend of animation and live action, a man eats a vinyl record, razor blades, thumb tacks, and more.

Summary:

An author struggling to write his latest novel, a story about aliens from another world, encounters aliens who are exact facsimiles of the ones he imagined.

Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy is a film set in the present with sci-fi and other fantastical elements. It features a truly wild premise where a man’s imagination collides with reality. The opening setup, where the protagonist questions whether what he’s witnessing is real or just a figment of his imagination, effectively establishes the stage for the series of absurd events that follow. From there everything builds to an absurd ending where a toy that grows into a giant monster that spews toxic fluids feeds upon a wedding party.

When it comes to performances, they work extremely well with the story that unfolds. The most memorable character is a blind man playing an accordion at the wedding party, oblivious to the slaughter and destruction. That said, what makes all of the performances so damn enjoyable is the enthusiasm of the cast, who all fully embrace the madness.

Although things start off slowly, Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy is a film that is full of surprises, with the narrative picking up considerably by the time the narrative reaches its batshit crazy finale. Despite the bulk of the sci-fi-related special effects looking crude, notably the aliens' costumes and their robot accomplice, the effects related to the monster actually hold up really well. Some of the monster-related effects are quite gory, featuring scenes where characters have their heads ripped off or are ingested. Overall, Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy is a highly entertaining blend of sci-fi, horror, and humor that makes it easy to overlook its shortcomings.

Deaf Crocodile gives Visitors from the Arkana Galaxy a first-rate release that comes with a strong audio/video presentation, five short films, and insightful extras; highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer