Lady Macbeth

2017 looks like being the strongest year yet for the BFI's iFeatures scheme with both Lady Macbeth and The Levelling receiving terrific reviews and God's Own Country, due for release later in the year, also hotly tipped.

Lady Macbeth is a fresh and original period film by first time director William Oldroyd adapted from Nikolai Leskov’s 1865 novel Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District transplanting the story from Russia to the North East of England in the 19th Century.

Everything about the film has an exacting quality. The script is tight, the sound design intelligent and every shot is carefully considered - the static, precise photography of the interiors contrasting sharply with the handheld exterior scenes (shot in a blustery Northumberland) that share common ground with Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights.
 

The supporting cast are all excellent but the film is dominated by an astonishingly brave, strong performance from Florence Pugh in her first leading role.. definitely one to watch.