TELLURIDE – Just when you thought the world didn’t need another contemporary staging of a classic William Shakespeare play, a movie comes along that makes you reconsider that stance. The latest incarnation that cautiously deserves your attention is Aniel Karia’s “Hamlet,” a world premiere at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival. Starring Riz Ahmed as the seemingly mad prince in question (or heir, in this case), this adaptation moves the tale to London and the dramatic developments surrounding a South Asian family whose housing developments are undire fire from local residents.
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Featuring a screenplay by Michael Lesslie, who adapted another legendary Shakespeare creation, “Macbeth” for Justin Kurzel in 2015, the basic framing from the original play is essentially reiterated here with appropriate contextual changes. The film begin with Hamlet washing the body of his dead father (Avijit Dutt) as is Hindu tradition at a London crematorium. He is dazed by the sudden passing, but more shocked when he is quickly asked to bless the wedding of his uncle, Claudius (Art Malik), and his widowed mother, Gertrude (Sheeba Chadha), seemingly just days after the death. Things get stranger when he is visited by an apparition claiming to be the ghost of his father, who informs him that he was murdered by Claudius, and to avenge his death. Is this real? Is he imagining it all? Unclear of what to do, Hamlet goes on a frenetic spree that disrupts the “boy, that was fast” wedding ceremony. When he ends up killing his family’s financial advisor, Polonius (Timothy Spall), in self-defense, his already tense demeanor spirals into a manic panic. Polioius’ daughter Ophelia (Morfydd Clark) and son Laertes (Joe Alwyn) initially sought to console Hamlet over his loss and are now are respectfully heartbroken, demanding their own revenge.
If you have read or seen the play, you are very well aware where all this is headed, but Karia and Lesslie fashion the inevitable showdown in a manner that is easier to fathom in the 21st Century, even if, spoiler, no swords are at play. The pair also surprise by not only how they interpret some of the plot points, but how they re-stage some of the play’s more famous soliloquys. For instance, “To be or not to be” is now heard in an excruciatingly tense scene where Hamlet speeds down a highway on the verge of suicide. Then again, some iconic lines, such as “Good night, sweet prince” from the end of the original 17th-century play, were curiously omitted.
For the most part, these choices work, even if the cast speaking in the material’s original iambic pentameter borders on becoming tedious. In truth, the narrative in “Hamlet” is a tale as old as time, in one manner or another. Universal characters and scenarios that would resonate even if a new interpretation is played out in another language without subtitles. Would the proceedings be more digestible to modern audiences by using present-day dialogue instead? Sure, but Karia has Ahmed’s impassioned performance, one of his best, a committed and talented cast, often stunning visuals from director of photography Stuart Bentley, as well as his own imaginative staging to captivate the viewer. This is as visceral and grounded Shakespeare then you’ve ever seen on film. It makes Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” seem even more over-the-top than it was aiming for. You believe all of this could happen tomorrow, perhaps without the mannered verse.
A passion project for Ahmed since he was 16 years old (he’s also a producer), the only real fault with this incarnation is that it may not be as thematically deep as either he or Karia hoped. The narrative thread of Hamlet’s royal family being recast as inherently corrupt land developers feels more like an afterthought than any real statement about the haves and the have-nots. But Karia, who won an Oscar for his short film “The Long Goodbye,” is a real talent. And this is quite the second feature-length showcase for his visionary eye.
Karia’s staging of the players meant to celebrate the wedding of Claudius and Gertrude, now traditional Hindu dancers, is especially brilliant. Preceded by Hamlet’s over-the-top and cringeworthy crowdwork in red lipstick and a headscarf, Karia directs the performers subtly, seguing from a joyous celebratory dance to a tense and almost horrifying recreation of the sordid death of Hamlet’s father right in the faces of the newlyweds. And while Karia, Ahmed, and Lesslie’s version of the tragedy may not emotionally resonate when the curtain inevitably falls, it’s those moments that make it hard to dismiss. [B]
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Editor-at-Large Gregory Ellwood is one of Hollywood's most respected awards journalists, covering the Oscars and Emmys beat with the access and institutional knowledge that comes from decades reporting at the center of the industry. Based in West Hollywood, he has written for the LA Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, HitFix, and Vox, among others.
