The Hamlet Syndrome (dir. Niewiera & Rosołowski, 2022) – Drawing a Portrait of the Maidan Generation with Piotr Rosołowski

Abstract

Several months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, two Polish filmmakers who specialize in documenting political, social and cultural transformations in Eastern Europe, Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski, came up with the idea of combining the Hamlet figure with the then-emerging Ukrainian documentary theatre to draw a portrait of the Maidan generation born following the collapse of the Soviet Union. For this purpose, they cast five Ukrainians and a documentary theatre director, Roza Sarkisian, and asked them to rehearse an experimental version of Hamlet on a stage in Kyiv. The script of The Hamlet Syndrome documentary is based on stories the protagonists shared during and in between rehearsals. The article also features an interview with Piotr Rosołowski, co-director, co-scriptwriter and cinematographer of the film, in which he discusses the origins of the project, its challenges, development, reception, and the use of the Hamlet figure.