REEL | Grieving the Shakespearean Tragedy of 'Hamnet' x TIFF 2025

"Will you be brave?"

Toronto International Film Festival

Hamnet, Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao's elegaic period film adaptation of Irish novelist and co-screenwriter Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 fictional literary account exploring the lingering trauma of the tragic childhood death of William Shakespeare's eponymous young son, stars Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as the famed playwright's grieving wife (Agnes) and the young Bard himself. As a real tearjerker, the occasionally metaphysical film balances the inspiration of sadness and grief and its effect on the artistic process.

Produced by both Sam Mendes and Steven Spielberg, Hamnet lingers on its Shakespearean material by letting its actors inhabit their historical characters as regular sixteenth-century parents trying to take care of their three growing children. Buckley, a true force of nature, expresses her bold emotions all over her face and through her strong physicality. We witness from her point of view her husband's inception of writing Hamlet before its stage debut.

Zhao directs a remarkably devastating speculative historical character drama about Shakespeare's origins as a father and playwright. Hamnet is a sumptuously exhausting tribute to the pain and suffering of parenthood, told through one of history's most famous and influential creative minds. It's the ultimate piece of fictional tragedy that doubles as literary catharsis, spawning endless other works on and off the stage.

Hamnet screened at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Gala Presentations program.


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