Shylock's Ghost

Shylock's Ghost

  • Overview
  • Cast
  • Crew

Status

Released

Release Date

Oct 27, 2015

Runtime

1h 10m

Genres

Documentary, History

Original Title

Shylock's Ghost

Production Companies

BBC

Director

Colette Camden

Description

As Man Booker Prize-winning writer Howard Jacobson retells The Merchant of Venice, 400 years after Shakespeare’s death, he travels with Alan Yentob to the ghetto in Venice to explore Shakespeare's most performed play - and in particular the character of the most divisive fictional Jew in history, Shylock. On their journey, Howard and Alan examine the evidence behind the charge of antisemitism against Shakespeare. How did his old Jew from Venice become such a useful propaganda tool during the Third Reich, and what was behind the absurd and infamous proposal to cut off a 'pound of flesh'?