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Hamlet Unbound
(DV, color, 114:05 min)



po
(16mm, B&W, 14:11 min)
Judy Leinweber as Gertrude

po

Art is an expression of love, that's to say, an effort to preserve the beauty that goes away in the stream of time - as Adorno wrote.

Being 21 I decided that I was going to perform Hamlet before my 30th anniversary. In the summer of 1997 I boldly altered Shakespeare's original play. I rewrote it according to my own impressions, making as evident as possible my own interpretation of the classic. The result was the screenplay of Hamlet Unbound.

When I told my colleagues about my project, most of them considered it too ambitious and too difficult to realize. After all, I had no budget, and the DV format was not considered to be up to the standards of cinema.

Ten years have passed and the first digital cut of the film has been accomplished...




I wrote the first draft of po in 1988, while discovering the novels of Samuel Beckett.

 The title refers primerely to p.o. (post office in the US) a subtle reference to Bartleby, but also to the portuguese word for 'dust'. po is man who lives intensively, in spite of being constantly hurt by his relatives and friends. The external world is  his reference, the source of his  sufferings, pleasures and ambitions. As Voltaire, he believes that he will leave the world as crooked and wicked as he found it. Eager to be imperceptible po has chosen to live in a dark and small room, as a handicap, reducing his own fate to the remembrance of his dreams, experiences and nightmares. A woman takes care of him, though he complaints that she is trying to kill him.

I described po once as 'a story of frustrated ambition in the mood of post-industrial society'. Shot in 1995 po was awarded with the Temple University Motion Picture Association Scholarship.


Dramatis personae

Hamlet......Hugo Santander
Horatio......Lori Rolinski
Claudius......Roger Wilks
Gertrude......Judy Leinweber
Laertes......Richard Matwiejewicz
Polonious......Lewis Korff
Ophelia......Lori Rolinski
Rosencrantz......Ingrid Simon
Guildenstern......Tracy Todd
Bernardo......Michael Harris
Ghost......Jeremy Frey
Digger 1......Jason Centeno
Digger 2......Jeff Goldman
Actor 1......Jeremy Frey
Actor 2......Mary C. Donally
Actor 3......Jay Speca
Actor 4......Roger Wilks
Actor 5......Tomás Trinidad
Lawyer......Michael Castaldo
Priest......Tomás Trinidad
Nurse voice over......Coralie Santander


Crew

Cinematography
Juan Carlos Rojas

Camera
Juan Carlos Rojas
Louanne Dickenson
Amanda Whittenberger
Hugo Santander

Sound recording
Louanne Dickenson

Crew
Keiichi Kondoh
Jeremy Frey
Carlos Lara
Sandra Ordóñez

Editing
Hugo Santander

Production
Coralie Santander

Written and directed
by
Hugo Santander

Music score
Carlos Lara
Hugo Santander


First Film Productions 
©
2007




Dramatis personae

po...Sascha Majcenic

po's first friend...Ryan Saunders

she...Kimi Takesue

he...Michael Saenz

woman on the street...Amanda Whittenberger

po's second friend...Hugo Santander

 
Crew

Amanda Whittenberger

Kimi Takesue

Keiichi Kondoh

Subz Krishnaswamy

Ryan Saunders

Vivek Gahunia

Hamlet Unbound - Script (scenes)


po -  Script




PALONEGRO. BUCARAMANGA'S VIEW--COLOMBIA. EXT/DAY.

Hamlet walks amongst cadavers. People come and go taking money out their pockets. He looks up and there is the city.

Rosencrantz and Guilderstern wait in the background; the
former sleeping; the latter eating. A mourning woman crosses Hamlet's path, and Hamlets addresses her.

         HAMLET
Senora, whose lives were this?

         MOURNING WOMAN
There were of Colombia, sir.

         HAMLET
For which purpose they died, I pray you?

         MOURNING WOMAN
They fought against each other,
sir.
        
         HAMLET
Who commanded them?

         MOURNING WOMAN
Ambitious leaders who survived, and preparing are another war.

         HAMLET
Was this a revolution, senora, or
were they fighting for some land?

         MOURNING WOMAN
Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition, they came to people this little patch of ground, that hath in it no profit but the name of
living and surviving. Their owners tried in vain to sell this barren land, that I would not farm unless
hunger drives me to do so.
Guerrilla settled it, and bloody murder began. Kidnap and never-ending slaughtering,  have since
then taken all these farms.
 
The woman leaves; Hamlet walks amongst cadavers.

       HAMLET
This is Bucaramanga--the most fierce battlefield. The imposthume of much wealth and peace, which shows no cause without Why man and woman die.

    (pause. 2 children
     look at him over the
     cadaver of their
     mother)

How all occasions do inform
against me, And spur my dull
revenge! What is a human being, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
    (pause)
A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom And ever three parts coward, I do not know Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to
do;' Sith I have cause and will and strength and means To do't.
  
Hamlet walks up the mountain.

         HAMLET
    (continuing)
Examples gross as earth exhort me: Witness this slaughter of such mass and charge.  Led by corrupt leaders, Whose spirit with
ambition puff'd Makes mouths at the invisible event, Exposing what is mortal and unsure To all that fortune, death and danger dare, Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to
be great Is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honour's at the stake. How stand I then, That have a father kill'd,
a mother stain'd, Excitements of my reason and my blood, And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I have seen the death of peasants
and soldiers amids a poverty
enlarged by my own family--twenty thousand dead, which is not tomb
enough and continent  to hide the slain?
    (looking at
     Rosencrantz)
O, from this time forth, My
thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

He approaches them both. They look at him with surprise.

  CUT TO:

NURSING HOME'S GARDEN. EXT/DAY.

Gertrude waits amids very old people.

         GERTRUDE
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss: So full of artless jealousy is guilt....

Ophelia meets her. She looks older and pale.

         OFELIA
Where is the beauteous trustee of our wealth?

         GERTRUDE
How now, Ophelia!

         OFELIA
How should I your true lover know From my own?-- By his cockle hat and staff,-- And his sandal shoon. --He is dead and gone, lady,-- He is dead and gone;--At his head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone.

         GERTRUDE
Nay, but, Ophelia,

         OFELIA
--Pray you, mark.

Claudius approaches.

         GERTRUDE
Look here, Claudius.

         OFELIA
Larded with sweet flowers Which bewept to the grave did go With true-love showers.

         CLAUDIUS
How do you, pretty lady?

         OFELIA
Well, peace be with you.  They say our Investments made fortune with weapons. We know what we are-- but know not what we may be. Death be at your table!

       CLAUDIUS
    (to Gertrude)
Conceit upon her father.

         OFELIA
You promised me to wed.--So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed.

         CLAUDIUS
How long hath she been thus?

         OFELIA
I hope all will be well. We must be patient: but I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i' the cold ground. My brother
shall know of it: and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach!
  
She leaves talking to strangers.

         OFELIA
    (continuing)
Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies; good night, good night.

         GERTRUDE
Poor Ophelia Divided from herself and her fair judgment, Without the
which we are pictures, or mere beasts.

         CLAUDIUS
Her brother has in secret come from Bogota; Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds, And wants not buzzers to infect his ear With pestilent speeches of his father's death.

         GERTRUDE
Sorrows come many, and in many places they give me superfluous death.
 
CUT TO:

CLAUDIUS' OFFICE. INT/ DAY.

Claudius listens to a voice.

       ABOGADO
The strike has elected him, and, as the world were now but to begin, family values forgot, law not known, they cry 'Choose we: Laertes shall be our trustee.' Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud
it to the clouds: 'Laertes shall be Elsinor's trustee, Laertes trustee!'

         GERTRUDE
    (to the lawyer)
How cheerfully in the false trail they cry!
  
The lawyer and Gertrude are seated in front of Claudius.

From the background Laertes an the UNION LEADER look at them.

         LAERTES
Give me my father, Claudius!

         GERTRUDE
Calmly, good Laertes.

         LAERTES
That drop of blood that's calm proclaims me bastard, Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow Of my true
mother.

         CLAUDIUS
What is the cause, Laertes, That thy strike looks so giant-like? Tell me, Why thou art thus incensed.  Speak, man.

         LAERTES
Thus you pay? Making your
employees work late at night till they drown and are lost into the sea's entrails?
  
The UNION LEADER throws a chair over the floor.

         CLAUDIUS
    (to the lawyer)
Let Laertes demand his fill.

The lawyer types on a small computer.

       LAERTES
How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with: to hell, allegiance to you or to the Union!  I'll be revenged Most thoroughly for my
father.

         CLAUDIUS
Good Laertes, If you desire to know the certainty Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your revenge. Once you be informed of
who is your friend, and who your enemy,  will you draw this coast to coast strike?
  
Laertes looks around, stopping fixedly in Claudius.

         LAERTES
No if it harm my enemies.

         CLAUDIUS
Believe me, like we mistake the dead glean of the stars by the stars themselves, thus you mistake opportunity with abuse and friend
with foe.

         LAERTES
To these good friends thus wide I'll open my arms;  And like the kind life-rendering pelican, Repast them with my blood.

         CLAUDIUS
Why, now you speak Like a good child and a true gentleman. That I am guiltless of your father's
death, And am most sensible in grief for it, It shall as level to your judgment pierce As day does
to your eye.
 
CUT TO:




Based on a poem by Hugo Santander
 
I

They are coming again

I can feel them from here

She is my sister,

he is her lover

But I’m not sure

She could be my wife,

and he my son

It doesn’t matter.

They talk about common things:

Money, sex and food

I suppose I'm rich.

Otherwise I would be worried

 
II

It seems to me that this bedroom is expensive.

Perhaps I made some capital before,

Working with my father

Or when I went to the university.

Or maybe I was luckier than other men,

And I received financial aid

I’m not worried about money;

that’s the case


I don’t like food,

And I wouldn’t care to live in another place;

In a corner, or seated in the middle of the street

Nothing terrible can happened to me in this orld

Just to die,

But who says that to die is boring

III

I’m old,

But I’m not sure how old

At least,

I recalled I had a friend

I wrote a book—I believe

So many people had hopes in my future.

I have lived enough

IV

Now I can see the clouds

I like them

Because they look as you want,

And they are never the same

They remind me of things,

and stories


Books that I read when I was young

Because I was tired of talking

My favourite

Is the story of She and He crossing the street:

She wants a man,

And He wants a woman

They glance at each other

From two opposite corners,

In any city,

In any street

They know they can be perfect lovers

So they cross the street

The problem

Is that they don’t want to be first

They want to love each other with equality

So they don’t stop

And they just switch positions

She thinks

That there are not many opportunities in this life, so

She wants to ask to Him about an address

He thinks

That there are not many opportunities in this life, so

He wants to give to her his apartment's keys

But probably

He will think that he has things to do,

Like seeing TV or calling his mother;

Then he will leave breaking her heart.

Or probably

She will think that she has things to do,

Like seeing TV or calling her father,

Then she will leave breaking his heart.

That’s the end,

I mean, there is no end.

They are there thinking about their future

Doing  nothing

That’s life,

that’s fate

They don't have and end either

You can wonder about a decision for always

 
V

I suppose they are fucking around

Or taking care of their duties with life

I’m expelling gases

They are moving away

I know my body stinks

I have confused memories about my adult life

I was obsessed with cleaning—that’s sure

But I felt disappointed

When I realised that it is impossible

To clean something,

Because everything is rotten

We are dying beasts

VI

I also studied politics

I don’t know how

I climbed up the stairs of power

And I addressed my speech to the mass

But soon I realised

I couldn’t be better than other kings or presidents

I left the world as foolish and wicked as I found it

Who said it?

VII

I feel she’s washing my body

I know she wants to kill me,

But she is afraid of someone,

or something


Last time she submerged me in the tub for one minute

I saw a black hole and a tunnel

So I knew I lost my right eye sight

But I survived

One day someone will try to persuade me to sign a paper

I know they were trying to kill me

But I will be annoying her life till the end

It’s my pay back

 
VIII

I don’t hate her

She seems happier than me

Like my wife

Of her I don’t remember many things

She used to tell me stories about her ex-lovers;

Of how she enjoyed better moments with them

She must be dead by now

And of our son,

I hope he will forgive me for his suffering

I forgave my father

I’m sure he'll do better than me

It's good to know it

We are in the same mud

IX

I feel a pain in my knee

A cold pain

Perhaps it is cancer

Physical pain relieves my worries

X

She closed the window

Now there is no contact with the world

The night has come,

or at least I feel  tired
I will make an effort to cross my hands,

like the dead

I hope to have some nightmare,

Because I always forget the good dreams

Thanks to life I will be dead,
at least
  for today











Fallen Angels
(35mm slides, color, 10:22 min)




Anatomy of Night
(16mm, color, 7:05 min)





Anatomy of night

Based on a short story by Hugo Santander

As a land-surveyor I have traveled throughout the Colombian territory since my most tender youth.
After my parent’s death, my godfather sent me with a recommendation to Fernindando Pumarejo, then a congressman in representation of our state of Santander. After a short interview Pumarejo sent me with a second letter of recommendation to Babilio Caro, president of the Codazzi Institute.
   
«I advise you to stay as bachelor,» was his dry comment, before he ordered his secretary to type my first and, as I was going to know just before my death, my only job contract.






Based on poems by Hugo Santander

1.

He knew he could never live alone
He deemed women, as children, all alike
We can blame him, for he is a man
Unwilling forfeit his independence

Your lover, though before his mother
You forsook him with a smirk
Scorning her mind, her weary hands
Months later years perhaps hours days none

With his stories, his ambiguous gender
His uncompleted tasks, you left him down
He suffered a break down, or so you heard
An erotic sigh, another fad or whim
A dormant suicide, as any man or woman
Unable to associate disloyalty to love

Hugo Santander directs Judy LeinweberHugo Santander directs Judy LeinweberHugo Santander directs Judy LeinweberHugo Santander directs Judy LeinweberHugo Santander directs Judy LeinweberHugo Santander directs Judy Leinweber










































Hugo Santander Ferreira © First Film Productions 2007