Hamlet | TIFF 50

If you’ve been wondering how this adaptation fares, I can say it’s nothing short of absolutely electric - from the visual style to the performances, all mixed with the most intense cultural specificity ever woven into Shakespeare ever - and certainly on film.

Riz Ahmed puts in the most intense and legible turn as our Prince, mired in grief-stricken madness and making awful, escalating decisions, against the backdrop of a wealthy South Asian Family with a London property empire.

Why this play feels so suited to these situations cannot be accurately parsed, I feel. Only that the direction by Aneil Karia is so tense and affecting as to entirely surprise anyone who is already familiar with the material.

This film should have Academy Awards buzz already. The fact that it left Telluride without it, and arrived at TIFF’s doorstep so thoroughly in-buzzed is freaking me out a little. How far have we fallen that a clearly Oscar-worthy performance from one of our great British Dramatic actors is being so ignored and under discussed?

The script is literal Shakespeare. The visual style is beyond most contemporaries understanding. The performances fly so beyond the material - which is saying something - and make it understandable and legible in a way only really truly talented interpretations can.

I daren’t say the obvious, but our lead, Riz Ahmed, is not a shy man in the public eye. Regardless — it’s time to buzz. 🐝