HAMLET UNBOUND (2012), a complete long-feature film by H Santander. For a limited time on Youtube

"Hamlet Unbound" the second long-feature film by Colombian/French filmmaker Hugo Santander will be released by First Film Productions in Youtube on the eve of 2012. The film, produced with a micro-budget of 20,000 US dollars in the US (Philadephia, Las Vegas), and Colombia, portraits Hamlet as a Colombian-born adapted son tortured by guilt by the mining enterprises of Elsinor Inc, his family company, in Latin-America.
The film opens with Hamlet attempting to commit suicide from the roofs of Temple University in Philadelphia. The cadences of to be or not to be are then delivered in Spanish with English subtitles. Under the direct influence of surrealism, Santander makes use of dreams, intertitles and multiple voices in order to underline the inner worlds of the characters. Hamlet is a melancholic figure tortured by the death of his father in a godless era, or, as he says: "Nothingness is our fashion, mother."
The original script was written while Hugo pursued his MFA in Film & Media Arts at Temple University. "I wanted to adapt and direct Shakespeare's Hamlet since I was 18. Kenneth Branagh's literal adaptation of 1996 was only an obstacle at my university, where they couldn't understand why a Latin-American artist was attempting to adapt an English classic in the United States. Since the 90s American scholars are obsessed with racial or ethnographic identity: a sociological issue that constraints freedom of thought. At the end I was fortunate enough to find a devoted group of reliable, talented actors. We shot the film in a shameless filmmaking guerrilla style during weekends for almost six months. In fact, we never asked permission to shoot on streets, public buildings, parks and cemeteries." The project underwent several changes for 14 years. It was edited in Portugal, England, Colombia and India, countries where Santander worked as university professor of creative writing, film direction and screenwriting.
HAMLET UNBOUND (Colombia, USA, India, 125 minutos), a film by Hugo Santander, produced by First Film Productions.
Synopsis
Colombian-born US citizen Hamlet attempts to commit suicide after Hamlet Elsinor, his adoptive father, dies. Hamlet resents his mother's marriage with Claudius, his uncle and his new stepfather.
Horatio and Bernardo inform high-school friend Hamlet of the apparitions of his father's Ghost in Philadelphia. Hamlet goes to the cemetery, where he meets a ghost who claims to have been murdered by Claudius. The phantom demands Hamlet to be avenged.
As Hamlet doubts of the authenticity of the apparition, he feigns to be mad and ends his amorous liaison with Ophelia, his shrink. Polonius, Ophelia's father and Claudius' secretary, attempts to bring them back by presenting Gertrude and Claudius recordings of Hamlet's declarations of love. Claudius sends Polonius and Ophelia to look after Hamlet, together with Hamlet's ex-lovers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Hamlet prepares a film as a trap to prove his uncle's guilt. He screens it to his family and friends; soon after he accuses Claudius of having murdered his father.
Hamlet confronts her mother and kills Polonius, taking him for his uncle. Claudius and Gertrude send him hastily to Colombia escorted by his ex-lovers, who are secretly ordered to execute Hamlet in order to impart 'justice'.
Soon after Ophelia loses her mind and suffers a miscarriage. Hamlet is then sent to Colombia, where he manages to get rid of her bodyguards. Back in Philadelphia, Hamlet learns of Ophelia's madness and suicide, though there are rumors that she has been strangled by Laertes.
Soon after, in a tennis court, Hamlet's tragic fate unfolds...

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• HAMLET
• LONG FEATURE FILM
• Film Drama Action
• FILM
• MOVIE
• POST-MODERN
• SHAKESPEARE ADAPTATION