A Shakespearian Theatre Company is in crises. This company is staging “Hamlet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. What happens as a tragedy in the plays is reflected on the backstage as comedy. Dante, an ex-grand-actor, a genius that went mad during a scene seven years ago, is convoked to return to the wealthy Municipal Theatre as the new Artistic Director. Upon his return, Dante will encounter the ghosts of his past. Literally. His former director, who was run-over by a ham truck and killed, comes back to help stage “Hamlet” with a young TV actor on the main role and a terrible Ofelia cast by the local man of power.

An Academy Award nominee for City of God, Fernando Meirelles graduated with a degree in architecture. While attending university in Brazil, he made his first experimental productions using U-Matic equipment and a crew composed of friends. The resulting films won several prizes at the country’s earliest independent video festivals. The same group of friends went on to found the innovative studio, Olhar Eletrônico (Electronic Glance), bringing new life to Brazilian TV in the 1980s. For a decade, the group produced programmes for a variety of TV stations. In 1989-1990, Meirelles created and directed the popular children’s series “Rá-Tim-Bum”, for Brazilian public television. The 190 episodes of “Rá-Tim-Bum” received the Gold Medal from the New York Film and TV Festival in addition to numerous other awards. From television, Meirelles went on to direct commercials and promotional videos. His independent studio, O2 Filmes, became the largest in Brazil and over a period of ten years, received the most prestigious national and international prizes, including five Cannes Lions, several Clios, and nine Professional of the Year awards. In 1997, Meirelles directed his first feature film, O Menino Maluquinho (Wacky, Wacky Boy) with Fabrizia Pinto. Meirelles participated in the television project “Brava Gente
Brasileira” (2000) directing the episode “Palace II” (“Golden Gate”) as a ‘rehearsal’ for City of God. “Palace II” was re-edited as a short and received
the Best Short Film prize in the Panorama Section of the 2002 Berlin Film Festival among several other international awards. In 2000, Meirelles made his second feature film Domesticas (Maids) with director Nando Olival which was selected for competition at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. In 2002, he finished his third film, a feature-length adaptation of Paulo Lins’ novel Cidade de Deus (City of God). The film was co-produced by Walter Salles’ Video Filmes. City of God won more than 52 awards around the world and received four 2004 Academy Award nominations including: Best Director; Best Cinematography; Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay. Since 2002, O2 Filmes together with Globo Television has produced five episodes per year of the television series, “City of Men” (“Cidade dos Homens”). In 2004 Meirelles directed the feature film The
Constant Gardener, based on the John Le Carré novel, earning him a Golden Globe nomination, a BAFTA for Best Director. The film won three BIFAs, a BAFTA (Best Editing), an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actress for Rachel Weisz) and a Golden Globe (Best Supporting Actress). In 2007, he directed Blindness, a film based on the novel by José Saramago. Fernando shot a new TV series in 2008 for Rede Globo: “Som & Fúria” (“Sound and Fury”), an adaptation of the Canadian “Slings and Arrows”.

Niv Fichman has 30 years experience and over 200 feature films, documentaries, and television series to his name. He is currently producing William Phillips’ comedic western Gunless, starring Paul Gross, Sienna Guillory and Dustin Milligan, and recently produced Fernando Meirelles’
adaptation of Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago’s Blindness, written by Don McKellar and starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, and Gael García Bernal; as well as Paul Gross’ World War I romantic epic Passchendaele. Fichman has previously produced directors such as François Girard, Olivier Assayas, Guy Maddin, Don McKellar, Peter Mettler, Peter Wellington, Kevin McMahon, Marc Evans, as well as his partners at Rhombus, Larry Weinstein and Barbara Willis-Sweete. Feature films include The Red Violin, Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, Last Night, The Saddest Music in the World, Clean, Snowcake and Silk. Selected television projects include “Slings&Arrows”, “Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach”, “September Songs” and “Le Dortoir”. Awards include an Oscar for The Red Violin, seven Emmys and numerous Genies, Geminis, Golden Pragues as well as a Golden Rose of Montreux and a Prix Italia.