'Hamlet' and World Cinema

‘Hamlet’ and World Cinema reveals a rich history of cinematic production extending across the globe. Making a case for Hamlet as the world’s most frequently filmed text, and using specially commissioned interviews with cast, directors and screenwriters, it discusses films from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. The book argues that the play has been taken up by filmmakers world-wide to allegorize the energies, instabilities, traumas and expectations that have defined the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In so doing, the study rejects the Anglophone focus which has dominated criticism up to now and explores instead the multiple constituencies that have claimed Shakespeare’s most celebrated work as their own. ‘Hamlet’ and World Cinema uncovers a vital part of the adaptation story. It facilitates a fresh understanding of Shakespeare’s cinematic significance and newly highlights Hamlet’s political and aesthetic instrumentality in a vast range of local and global contexts.