In the past few years, William Shakespeare's plays have been experiencing a renaissance thanks to film adaptations. This trend is marked by his classical drama's: Al Pacino's “Looking for Richard”, Baz Luhrmann's “Romeo and Juliette” with Leonardo Di Caprio, Kenneth's Branagh's “Hamlet”, “Henry V”, “Much ado about nothing”, Oliver Parker's “Othello”, Michael's Radford' s “The Merchant of Venice”, and many others films which were very popular on festivals and among the audience.
“Hamlet” was performed numerous time in theatres and adapted for film, but this time completely in Romany language. For four centuries since it was created by the immortal Shakespeare's quill, the ghost of Hamlet's father has been wandering in search for revenge. Shakespeare's kingdom and castles are Gypsies colonies in the suburbs of Belgrade, favelas – hovels, made of everything that lost sense and value for others. On that “wealth” characters of this drama “live” their roles with the authenticity that only spontaneous actors amateurs could bring about. There, a crime is not a privilege of noble thinking and ethical decisions, but a conditional reaction on the unfair distribution of the garbage. These apocalyptic scenes are the most approximate vision of contemporary Hades, a scene on which again, but surely in a different manner, the drama of prince Hamlet is being played.
The production of the film “Hamlet” was finished at the end 2006, based on the screenplay which is a result of a collaboration of the director Aleksandar Rajkovic – Serbia, Ana Maria Jermoluk –Argentina, and a famous Yugoslav actress Dusica Zegarac. Photography-Milad Tauk – Liban, production design - Silvia Strozzy – Italy. Except two professional actors, Petar Bozovic, a bard of serbian acting scene, and Igor Djordjevic leading actor of Belgrade drama, all other roles are played by Gypsies actors amateurs: Zoran Kostic, Jovan Fetovski, Zoran Simic, Suzana Petrovic, Mirjana Sisic, Zdravko Rankovic and others.
World premiere of the film «Hamlet» took place on 35th International Film Festival in Rotterdam on Jan 25th. It attract tremendous interest of the audience and critics, and of distributers as well, with whom we are currently negotiation beginning of world distribution in May. In the meantime, «Hamlet» was invited to attent several prestigious international film festivals.
Film on the Rotterdam Festival