Northern Irish novelist Maggie O‘Farrell’s Hamnet (2020) managed to captivate not just the many awards juries who bequeathed garlands upon it, but also a wide general readership. This beautiful, moving adaptation, created in collaboration with Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao (Nomadland, 2020), is sure to meet with a similar response. Agnes (Jessie Buckley) encounters and is wooed by fledgling playwright William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal). While William plies his trade in London, Agnes remains in Stratford to look after their children, keeping a particularly watchful eye on sickly Judith (Olivia Lynes). However, it is her twin brother Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe) who is unexpectedly taken by the plague, leaving the parents unspeakably bereft. While Mescal provides exemplary support, the film belongs to Buckley and her astonishing performance as the free spirit transmuted into a raw nerve, grieving while her husband mourns.

There will be Open Captioned screenings at 15.15 on Friday 9th, and 18.00 on Tuesday 13th.

This powerful and beguiling adaptation by Chloé Zhao of the Leaving Certificate English novel by Maggie O’Farrell is showing for schools at 10:30am on the 29th of January. For further information visit: https://ifi.ie/learn/booking. These education screenings strictly for secondary school students and teachers only.

Notes by Kevin Coyne