ARCHIVES 2013 / Hamlet en Palestine

Give in or fight? To be or not to be? When Thomas Ostermeier, artistic director of the Schaubühne in Berlin, decided, at the invitation of the Al-Kasaba Theatre, to go to Ramallah in September 2012 to play Hamlet, the play presented in the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des papes in 2008, he knew that the Shakespearean verses would find a particular echo there. The idea of this trip came from an intense contact with theatre professionals in Palestine, and most especially with Freedom Theatre in the refugee camp in Jenin. Under the watchful eye of the film director Nicolas Klotz, the tragedy of the Danish prince crosses that of young Palestinians. The film is, moreover, a view on another tragedy: the murder of Juliano Mer Khamis, the former director of Freedom Theatre, killed by an unknown assassin in April 2011. Thomas Ostermeier was associate artist at the Festival d'Avignon in 2004.