Facets Video has just announced plans for the DVD release of Heimat: A Chronicle Of Germany, Edgar Reitz’s monumental 11-part series. Hailed as “a watershed in European cinema, ” by The Guardian, and “a milestone in contemporary film history,” by Variety, “Heimat” took five years to conceive and two years to shoot. Told with stylized naturalism and fluid action, “Heimat” covers German history from 1919 to 1982, focusing on the fictional village of Schabbach and the Simon family that lives there. Like the rest of the German people, the Simon family has to endure the hard times after WWI, struggle with the rise and fall of Nazism and WWII, and then prosper with the rebuilding of the country after the war.

Premiering on German television in 1984 and then released theatrically around the world, “Heimat” is now coming to DVD for the first time as a six-disc box set, with a total running time of 925 minutes. The release will be in stores on August 30, 2005, and retails for $99.95.