Macbeth; Act III; Scene III (b)

“Let the frame of things disjoint…”

In what seems to be a missing scene of sorts, imagined from the middle of Shakespeare’s play, we see Macbeth and Banquo together again in some strange psychic space. The tyrant Macbeth has sent his cronies to murder Banquo, and has begun his descent into madness, but we see none of this.

Attempting in part to distill the poetic essence of the original play into something smaller, the film is also an exploration into the relationship between the two characters – informed by folk horror, doom metal and buddy movies. We can think of them at once as infamous figures; secondly as archetypes – the tyrant and the negotiator; and lastly as human beings, mundane and petty.

The film was shot over 5 days around Berwick-upon-Tweed and the Scottish Borders. It was shot by a team of 4 (performers included!) on a Blackmagic pocket cinema camera, predominantly with vintage lenses. Some additional shots were captured later in a studio.