WORK: New film inspired by Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale brings Antony Gormley’s sculptures to life

The British Council commissioned author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce to rework Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale into this fantastical short film, directed by Carl Hunter, which uses Antony Gormley’s sculptural installation Another Place (found on Crosby Beach near Liverpool). The film stars actor Joseph Mawle of Game of Thrones fame.

“Shakespeare goes out of his way to draw our attention to time’s passing and the way time can often appear to stand still,” says Hunter. “The film tries to preserve the optimism and hope of Shakespeare’s late romances. We both live close to the Gormley statues in Crosby and I often walk that coastline taking photographs, observing the landscape as it changes through the seasons. I wanted a painterly approach to capturing the scenery and nature is a very good production designer. The play is also famous for being set on ‘the sea coast of Bohemia’. Bohemia, of course, has no coast. It must be ‘another place’, to use the title of Gormley’s installation.”

The film is the final in a series of commissions by the British Council that form part a global programme celebrating William Shakespeare’s work and his influence on culture, education and society on the 400th anniversary of his death. The other films can be viewed on the British Council YouTube channel.