Liffe after Liffe:
Hamnet

Directed by: Chloé Zhao
UK, USA, 2025, 126'

Cankarjev dom Cinema Hamnet

Screenplay: Chloé Zhao, Maggie O'Farrell
Cinematography: Łukasz Żal
Music: Max Richter
Cast: Jessie Buckley (Agnes Shakespeare), Paul Mescal (William Shakespeare), Joe Alwyn (Bartholomew Hathaway), Emily Watson (Mary Shakespeare), David Wilmot (John Shakespeare), Jacobi Jupe (Hamnet Shakespeare), Olivia Lynes (Judith Shakespeare), Bodhi Rae Breathnach (Susanna Shakespeare)
Production: Hera Pictures&Neal Street; Productions&Amblin Entertainment&Book of Shadows; distribution: Blitz film & video distribution d.o.o.
Festivals, awards (selection): Telluride 2025, Toronto 2025

Chloé Zhao turn Shakespeare's real-life tragedy into a heartbreaking story of love and loss that inspired the creation of the Bard's timeless masterpiece - Hamlet.

16th century, Stratford-upon-Avon. Over the objections of their families, Will and Agnes marry, and soon enough, Agnes is giving birth first to Susanna and then to twins, Hamnet and Judith. Will is carving out a successful career as a playwright in London, and Agnes takes care of the children. But then the plague comes for the eleven-year-old Hamnet. While Agnes is stricken with inconsolable grief, her faith and mental balance shattered, Will struggles to find meaning in his loss. In this transformative experience, a private sorrow morphs into one of the most enduring works of art the world has ever known.

I wanted the film to be about two people who see and are seen by each other. They're archetypal characters. I've studied Jungian psychology and Hindu Tantra - the energies of masculine and feminine, being and doing, birth and death. If we don't have a healthy connection to our roots, those forces battle within us. By creating two characters who embody that, the story can work at a collective level and an internal one. The alchemy of creativity lets those forces coexist. Hopefully it becomes something more than a story about marriage or the death of a child.
Chloe Zhao

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