Oscar winner Zhao shows the Bard’s life and sorrows in ‘Hamnet’

TORONTO: In director Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet,” the Oscar winner explores a new landscape of forests, greenery and dark clouds in 16th-century England to tell the story of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes overcoming the death of their 11-year-old son.

Zhao walked the red carpet ahead of the film’s Canadian premiere on Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival with stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal, who play Agnes and Shakespeare.

“Essentially you’ve got two Irish people and a Chinese woman in charge of a story that is so quintessentially British. It’s exciting to me,” Mescal told Reuters.

Zhao, who has won several awards for her 2020 drama “Nomadland,” takes the audience on an emotional journey showing the Bard’s domestic life through the eyes of his wife Agnes, portraying his life as a father and husband rather than his literary genius.

The film is an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel “Hamnet,” acknowledging that the names Hamlet and Hamnet were interchangeable in Shakespeare’s day.

The story is set in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Shakespeare spends his early years, falls in love with Agnes and raises his family before moving to London to become a playwright.

While grief and sorrow are the main themes in the film, showing how Shakespeare and Agnes grieve in their own way over their son Hamnet, there are moments of joy showing the Bard as a father.

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“It’s very different because there are no sunsets. No magic hour in this film,” Zhao said, noting the style that previously won her an Oscar.

“The challenge (as I was making this film) was to keep myself on one stage, in one room and be with myself in stillness…It’s very uncomfortable, but that’s part of the process.”

Hamnet will be released in movie theaters in late 2025.