Frameline Fall Showcase presents Elsinore

By 1989 acclaimed Scottish actor Ian Charleson (a sensational Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers), who had career-defining roles in Oscar-winning pictures Chariots of Fire (1981) and Gandhi (1982), yearns for his next great role. For Charleson, a gay man with AIDS, navigating Hollywood and keeping his personal life private is a minefield, and he’s drawn to the idea of revisiting his stage-actor roots. When Daniel Day Lewis abandons Richard Eyre’s (Johnny Flynn, Ripley) production of Hamlet at the National Theatre mid-performance, Charleson is poised to take over the play’s title role.

But the actor’s ambitious return is halted when he develops Kaposi’s sarcoma, prompting his doctor (Oscar winner Olivia Colman, The Favourite) to forbid him from taking on such a strenuous role. Featuring memorable supporting turns from Joe Locke(Heartstopper) and David Dawson (My Policeman), who plays renowned queer filmmaker Derek Jarman, Simon Stone’s latest is a deeply resonant film about the power of art and human connection in the face of mortality, all moored by a career-best, Oscar-worthy performance from Scott.