19 June 2013			news  |  productions  |  distribution  |  footage  |  company  |  contact  |  start
news archive			Macbeth in Sami Language “ It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood.” William Shakespeare, Macbeth It must be the most unlikely setting for a classical Macbeth. Two hundred kilometers north of the Arctic Circle in Sweden, Shakespeare’s story of Macbeth is played out against a backdrop of an almost dreamlike landscape of ice and snow. The northern lights feed the mystique of the witches and the omnipresent coldness blankets the warm feelings and the murderous obsession of the loving twosome in the Macbeth household. Adding to the uniqueness of this screenplay is the fact Macbeth is performed in the Sámi language, playing out a classical Shakespearean drama on a timeless northern set. But this film has not been adapted to the Sámi culture and it will not expose Sámi people in their traditional attire. But the Sámi has always relied on nature, as the source of both their material and spiritual culture. In the film Macbeth Bo Landin has worked closely with Norwegian director Alex Scherpf who originally staged the Sámi versions of Hamlet and Macbeth on the stage of the Ice Globe Theatre in conjunction with the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden. Alex Scherpf, a long time director of Norwegian theatre, has been the director and artistic leader of the Beaivvás Sámi Teáhter, the Norwegian national scene for the Sámi people. His long time experience of Sámi theatre was pivotal to the production of Macbeth. Shakespeare’s Macbeth paints vivid pictures with strange metaphors, which has provided a great challenge for translators and actors to correctly express behavior and words that the Sámi language does not inherently contain. In the lead roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth we find actors Toivo Lukkari and Anitta Suikkari. Other roles are performed by Irene Länsman, Elisabeth H Blind, Nils Henrik Buljo Beaska Niilas, Ebba Joks, Mikkel Gaup and Per Henrik Bals. In first–time director Bo Landin’s interpretation of Macbeth, the landscape and Macbeth’s environs play a lead role. The witches rise like a cloud of breath in the icy air before dissolving and uniting with the snowy woods and mysterious northern lights. Their presence is felt through the ominous crows and the wolves that howl in the dark winter night. Who is Macbeth really trying to annihilate, and what lesson is it the witches are trying to teach him about the meaning of life and the nature of all things – and possibly about the relation to his environment? International distribution: Non Stop Sales www.nonstopsales.net
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