Song of the Miraculous Hind: Standard Edition – Deaf Crocodile (4K UHD/Blu-ray Combo)

Theatrical Release Date: Hungary, 2002
Director: Marcell Jankovics
Writer: Marcell Jankovics
Cast: László Áron, Árpád Besenczi, Gergõ Bódi, Ildikó Bokor, Róbert Bolla, Ferenc Borbiczky, Gyula Buss, Imre Csuja

Release Date: April 21st, 2026
Approximate Running Time: 94 Minutes 2 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio / 2160 Progressive / HEVC / H.265 / Dolby Vision HDR10
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Stereo Hungarian
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region Free (4K UHD), Region A (Blu-ray)
Retail Price: $39.95

"Song of the Miraculous Hind is Marcell Jankovics’ incredibly ambitious attempt to depict thousands of years of Hungarian culture and myth, based in part on early Siberian and Finno-Ugric legends and incorporating Scythian, Iranian, and Turkic artistic influences. Divided into four sections, the film opens in a violent snowstorm, with nomadic hunters stalking deer and woolly mammoth and singing songs of their spiritual brethren—and it ends millennia later, with Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians, who helped bridge the gap between Paganism and early Christianity." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5 (4K UHD, Blu-ray)

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "4K restoration of the film by the NFI – Film Archive in Hungary."

Song of the Miraculous Hind comes on a 100 GB triple layer 4K UHD.

Disc Size: 75.4 GB

Feature: 62.1 GB

Vital Passenger delivers a solid encode; the source looks excellent. Colors are nicely saturated, image clarity, black levels, and compression are solid, and the image retains an organic look.

Song of the Miraculous Hind comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 39.8 GB

Feature: 27.1 GB

This Blu-ray uses the same master that is used for the 4K UHD disc.

Audio: 5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD stereo mix in Hungarian with removable English subtitles. The audio sounds excellent; dialogue comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced and robust when it should.

Extras:

Extras on the 4K UHD disc include a video essay by film historian Evan Chester titled Mythic Origins, Sacred History, and the Making of National Identity in Song of the Miraculous Hind (16 minutes 49 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with the film’s composer Levente Szörényi (of legendary Hungarian rock band Illés) and animator Piroska Martsa, translated by Anna Klaniczay and moderated by Dennis Bartok for Deaf Crocodile (49 minutes 34 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English and Hungarian with English translation), and an audio commentary with animation producer and podcaster Adam Rackoff, podcaster and film critic James Hancock, and filmmaker and podcaster Martin Kessler.

Extras are the same on the Blu-ray disc.

Summary:

Marcell Jankovics directed Song of the Miraculous Hind. He’s known for Son of the White Mare and The Tragedy of Man.

The narrative is divided into four sections: Land of Origin, Hunor and Magyar, On and On, and Pannonia. The narrative covers one thousand years of Hungarian history, beginning with the time of Prince Géza, when Hungary was Christianized. Although the four stories are based on Siberian and Finno-Ugric legends, they incorporate Scythian, Iranian, and Turkic artistic influences.

While Song of the Miraculous Hind was made specifically for a Hungarian audience, its four stories have a universal appeal to them. Anyone familiar with Marcell Jankovics's other films knows his distinct style of filmmaking. He uses techniques that give his films a retro look, and when it comes to the way images appear onscreen, they are not bound by conventionalism. That said, his style of animation and storytelling is overflowing with imagination.

Each story stands strong independently, and in terms of pacing, the narrative effectively builds momentum. Not all of the characters are human; there are half-human/half-bear, half-human/half-deer, and other hybrids. Spoken words come in the form of narration, songs, and dialogue exchanges between characters. While there is carnage throughout, the last story with its depiction of public executions is the most violent. Ultimately, Song of the Miraculous Hind is a film that fans of Marcell Jankovics will thoroughly enjoy, while those uninitiated to his cinema would be better suited starting with Son of the White Mare.

Deaf Crocodile gives Song of the Miraculous Hind a definitive release. Highly recommended.

Note: There is a deluxe release of Song of the Miraculous Hind that comes in a slipcase and a 60-page book with an essay by film historian Jenny Barker and an essay by film critic Walter Chaw (Film Freak Central).

Note about the 4K screenshots: It is not possible to make Dolby Vision or HDR10 screenshots that faithfully match the experience of watching a film in motion on a TV. Instead of not having any screenshots, all of the 4K screenshots are m2ts taken with a MPC-HC player and lossless PNGs.

Written by Michael Den Boer