Charlie Kaufman’s HOW TO SHOOT A GHOST Trailer Takes Us Into a Haunting Walk Through Athens
Charlie Kaufman is back with something strange and beautiful. The Oscar-winning filmmaker has unveiled the trailer for his new short film How to Shoot a Ghost, which will premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival.
The 27-minute film stars Jessie Buckley and Josef Akiki as two recently deceased young people wandering the streets of Athens.
The official synopsis describes them as “One a translator, the other a photographer, they were outsiders in life; in death they struggle with the residue of their longings and mistakes. They wander the city together, finding consolation in the difficult beauty of existence and its aftermath.”
Kaufman spoke about returning to the festival, saying: “I’m so pleased to be going to Venice with How to Shoot a Ghost. It’s a lovely festival that holds a very special place in my heart.
“Being John Malkovich premiered there in 1999, so Venice was instrumental in launching my screenwriting career. And of course, we also had a great time there in 2015 with Anomalisa.”
Buckley, who earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance in The Lost Daughter, continues to build an impressive filmography with upcoming roles in Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! where she takes on the iconic role of the Bride of Frankenstein.
Akiki, a rising Lebanese actor, has recently been seen in Dwan Kaoukji’s award-winning short Canary in a Coal Mine.
The screenplay for How to Shoot a Ghost was written by poet and author Eva H.D.
Kaufman’s work has always thrived in the strange space between life and death, memory and reality, and How to Shoot a Ghost looks like a continuation of that exploration in a tighter, dreamlike form.