London Film Award Nomination Ralph Fiennes: '[as director] .. makes a powerful case for Coriolanus as an essential, contemporary drama, about democracy, class war and the nation state. It reaches back to the Yugoslavian conflict, and the point is not just to satirise nationalist bullies and butchers, but also the smoothly indifferent mandarin class of western Europe in that era.'

The Guardian: “There's a fierce critical intelligence at work in Ralph Fiennes's new adaptation of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, set somewhere like the war-torn Serbia of the 1990s, a world of rolling TV news, image management and cynical deals cut in smoke-filled rooms. Fiennes makes a powerful case for Coriolanus as an essential, contemporary drama, about democracy, class war and the nation state. It reaches back to the Yugoslavian conflict, and the point is not just to satirise nationalist bullies and butchers, but also the smoothly indifferent mandarin class of western Europe in that era.”

Mr. Fiennes took on the project for his directorial debut after performing as the title role in the same Shakespearean opus at the Almeida Theatre in 2000. As an actor, Fiennes has twice been nominated for an Oscar, and won the TONY for his Broadway Hamlet. Ralph is the eldest of six siblings, and attended RADA after having diverted his attentions away from a future in Art. Ralph was somewhat of a star for the Royal Shakespeare Company before taking to the silver screen, and is a noted Shakespeare interpreter. His first efforts as a director have already been widely hailed as fiercely intelligent - here’s hoping for many more cinematic adventures from the acclaimed actor, both in front of and behind camera.

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