Title—The original title of Epsilon was changed to Alien Visitor for a US release on VHS tape; the new title has stuck. Even though it had limited release, we’ve chosen Epsilon in deference to director Rolf de Heer’s use of that title on the website of his production company.
Release—We found good details at Oz Movies, the director’s site, and Variety: Filming began mid-May 1994 and lasted some ten months. In 1995, shortly after the UK and US rights were bought by Mirimax and the Australian rights bought by Roadshow, the film had a non-festival showing at Cannes (late May 1995) fraught with problems (such as the sale of 1,000 tickets for only 500 seats); later that same year, a private screening for the judges of the Australian Film Awards resulted in the nomination of cinematographer Tony Clarke for the Samuelson Award for Best Achievement in Cinematography, After that, the film disappeared for a while before a Mirimax-funded version made a brief theatrical appearance the Greater Union’s Pitt Centre in Sydney beginning 27 February 1997. It then had various video releases, including an Australian DVD that has both the original version (97m 46s) and the Mirimax version (87m 46s, plus the addition of actress Althea McGrath and others).
