To be, or to not be? That’s the query echoing by way of a derelict Soviet-era retirement dwelling in Armenia, the place a gaggle of residents rehearse for an unique play that will even dazzle William Shakespeare. The play, Shakespeare’s Sins, sees the characters of the well-known playwright, who is usually merely referred to as “The Bard,” confront him over their tragic fates. And a documentary crew was there to seize the method on movie.
“From casting to premiere evening, Outliving Shakespeare follows the retiree theater troupe bonding in and between rehearsals, reworking from a lighthearted, heat take a look at the harmless dignity of growing old, right into a deeper, thought-provoking exploration of the loneliness that accompanies it,” reads a synopsis for the movie. “Because the manufacturing unfolds, the theater mirrors actuality.”
Outliving Shakespeare, premiering on Tuesday in the Luminous strand on the Worldwide Documentary Movie Competition Amsterdam (IDFA), comes from administrators Inna Sahakyan and Ruben Ghazaryan. For the latter, it marks the function directorial debut.
The manufacturing from Armenia-based Bars Media and the Netherlands-based BIND options Vardan Hovhannisyan, Sahakyan and Mariam Davtyan as producers for Bars, with Joram Willink, Esther van Driesum and Rosalien Hollestelle as co-producers for BIND.
Ghazaryan beforehand collaborated with Sahakyan on her animated function Aurora’s Dawn because the editor and live-action taking pictures director. Aurora’s Dawn was Armenia’s 2023 entry for the most effective worldwide function movie Oscar.
Now, the duo is bringing Outliving Shakespeare to the world. In spite of everything, all of the world’s a stage.
“I’ve all the time been drawn to observing elders — their lives maintain so many layers of affection, humor, longing, and remorse, all expressed with a sort of honesty that solely age makes attainable,” explains Sahakyan. “In Outliving Shakespeare, I needed to seize these shifting colours of elderhood inside a dilapidated retirement dwelling in Armenia, the place a gaggle of residents determined to rehearse Shakespeare as a strategy to deliver rhythm and which means into their days.”
Provides Ghazaryan: “As life and theater start to merge, their performances reveal truths they may by no means articulate in unusual dialog. What unfolds just isn’t merely a narrative about growing old or appearing, however about reminiscence, love, and the deep human want to be acknowledged. Earlier than the curtain falls, every of them finds a second to be really seen.”
THR can now solely premiere the primary trailer for Outliving Shakespeare. Test it out under, and prepare for the love, the laughs, the drama, and rather more.