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New on DVD: 'Fortitude,' 'The Book of Negroes,' 'The Soft Skin,' 'The Story of Adele H.'

At first, Pivot's new series Fortitude sounded like an oddity: an English-language murder mystery set on a remote Norwegian island, populated by a cast of characters from every corner of the Earth, including Scandinavians of all stripes, Brits, Americans, Spaniards, and Russians.

At first, Pivot's new series

Fortitude

sounded like an oddity: an English-language murder mystery set on a remote Norwegian island, populated by a cast of characters from every corner of the Earth, including Scandinavians of all stripes, Brits, Americans, Spaniards, and Russians.

It was a curiosity.

Yet, it was also highly addictive and seriously, severely suspenseful. Writer-producer Simon Donald's 10-episode drama is now available for home entertainment courtesy of PBS Video.

Fortitude excels in just about every way: The cast, the setting, and the story all are superb.

The story gets going when an acclaimed scientist (Christopher Eccleston) falls victim to a grisly murder. He's bashed over the head, then hacked and slashed to death with a potato peeler. The show features brief scenes of brutal violence, but most of the terror in Fortitude is psychological.

Because the victim was British, Scotland Yard sends one of its top cops (Stanley Tucci) to investigate.

Aside from Eccelston and Tucci, the ensemble cast includes Sienna Guillory, Luke Treadaway, Verónica Echegui, and Sofie Gråbøl, the acclaimed star of the original Danish version of The Killing.

Distinctive and original, Fortitude blends two genres: It's a police procedural and an exciting environmental-disaster thriller.

Fortitude is set in one of the most stunning worlds captured on TV. It's locale is inside the Arctic Circle. The island is made up in part by a magnificent glacier.

The island economy is sustained by mining and science: Naturalists congregate at its research center to study the arctic wildlife, which includes more than 3,000 polar bears.

Because the bears outnumber the people - the island has fewer than 2,700 human inhabitants - everyone of age is required by law to carry a hunting rifle. (Imagine a town where police officers write you a ticket for not carrying a gun.)

But the real monster in town isn't the person who killed the scientist or the numerous bears, but a mysterious agent - some kind of infection or toxin - released by the melting permafrost that begins to affect the population. Intelligent, intriguing, and tense, Fortitude is a cult classic in the making. (www.shoppbs.org; $39.99 DVD; $44.99 Blu-ray; not rated)

Other titles of note

The Book of Negroes. One of BET's most successful productions, director Clement Virgo's six-part mini-series was adapted from the 2007 novel by Lawrence Hill. The story itself is based on the Book of Negroes, a ledger that contains information about the 3,000 African slaves in the colonies who fought for the British in return for their freedom. Aunjanue Ellis (The Mentalist, The Help) stars as a literate slave who is conscripted to help keep the ledger up to date. (www.entertainmentone.com; $39.98; not rated)

Two by Truffaut. One would be hard-pressed to name any one of François Truffaut's more than 20 films that is not considered a classic. Happily, two additional titles have been restored for high-definition.

From the Criterion Collection comes The Soft Skin (1964), a romantic drama released directly after Truffaut's masterpiece, Jules and Jim. Shot in Paris, Reims, and Lisbon, it's about a love affair between a married publisher and a stewardess. (www.criterion.com; $29.95 DVD; $39.95 Blu-ray; not rated)

With The Story of Adele H., Truffaut, who had made his reputation with modern, minimalist black-and-white films, embraced the costume drama. This 1975 historical romance is based on the life of Victor Hugo's daughter. A passionate picture about obsessive love shot in lush colors, it features a stunning turn by then-20-year-old Isabelle Adjani. The Blu-ray is available directly from the Screen Archives website. (www.screenarchives.com; $29.95; not rated)