A new Hamlet adaptation begs the question: What can’t Riz Ahmed do? It seems like the answer is nothing, because the first look at a modern adaptation has all of us anticipating the release date of this film. Set in London’s elite South Asian community, the story gives us a unique, complex take on these well-known characters.
When Hamlet (Ahmed) returns for his father’s funeral, he is stunned to discover his uncle Claudius is marrying his newly widowed mother. Visited by his father’s ghost, Hamlet learns his brutal murder was at the hands of Claudius – and spirals into a quest for vengeance that exposes the rot at the heart of the family’s empire and threatens his own sanity.
The remake was actually Ahmed’s idea. “I told Mike [Leslie, the writer] I wanted to base this Hamlet around a British Asian community,” he said. “The feeling of being an outsider felt so present to me, and to all of us, so I wanted to bring it to life with a very certain specificity. It’s a theme that is very alive for immigrant communities – you have to make a lot of compromises to climb the ladder.”
Ahmed and director Aneil Karia had collaborated on The Long Goodbye, which won the Academy Award in 2022 for Best Live Action Short Film.
“It was very clear to both of us that we wanted to work together again,” Karia said. “One day, Riz emailed me about this project he had briefly mentioned – a modern adaptation of Hamlet set in the South Asian community. If I’m completely honest with you, my gut instinct when I read that email was, ‘I’m not the guy for this.’ I never had that effortless relationship with Shakespeare … I had great admiration for Shakespeare, but I always felt a bit outside of it. Riz and Jim Wilson, one of our producers, were very understanding of my concerns. They encouraged me to go away and spend some time with it, which helped me overcome my fears.”
Hamlet also stars Morfydd Clark, Joe Alwyn, Sheeba Chaddha, Avijit Dutt, Art Malik, and Timothy Spall.
Check out the trailer below.
HAMLET | OFFICIAL TRAILER
Hamlet releases exclusively in theaters on April 10.
For more on Movies, make sure to check back to That Hashtag Show.
That Hashtag Show
