Kozintsev bears the burden of carrying Olivier’s version on his back. Instead of avoiding that pressure, he faces the fact and produces a series of inversions and new winnings that recuperate some aspects of Shakespeare’s text while introducing further innovations. The strongest decision in this adaptation is its turn toward nature, with the sun, the sea and the wind affecting the performances, as they perhaps would have under Elizabethan-era conditions, yet reinforcing a distinctly Romantic tone. Jonas Gricius’ low camera angles and lighting effects accentuate this dominant mood that Dmitri Shostakovich then counterpoints with his modernist score. Crowds take part in the action and, most importantly, politics re-enter. The State of Denmark is rotting, and the story of Hamlet is a symptom of that decadence. But the greatest provocation in this version relies on its linguistic aspect: Shakespeare’s English is translated into Russian. With this transformation, Kozintsev seems to say, “This text also belongs to us.” The different accentuations and sounds provide a new perspective in the spectator’s appreciation of the text. For non-Russian speakers, subtitles make the words visible, while the emphasis on the text’s musicality adds an unusual layer of abstraction to the Shakespearean adaptation.