Agnes, a healer who feels at home in the forest, marries a young Latin tutor named William Shakespeare. When their son Hamnet dies of plague, the grief pulls the family apart, and William pours it into a play called Hamlet. Chloé Zhao films it with a patient camera that mostly watches in wide shots and lets the ending hit hard.
Hamnet is a 2025 drama and history film directed by Chloé Zhao. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (3 narrative, 1 cinematography and 1 sound), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Portrait of a Lady on Fire uses several of the same techniques.
Treating nature as alive and aware, with its own will, hierarchy and sacred status. Animals and spirits respond to people, which argues that the natural world has value of its own.
How this film uses it
Agnes's world is the forest. She heals with herbs, flies a hawk and treats animals and trees as if they have spirits. Cinematographer Łukasz Żal has described the forest as a living organism, and the camera treats it that way.
Where to see it
The hawk's burial. When Agnes's hawk dies, the family buries it, and she tells the children to make wishes to its spirit.
Giving the camera its own point of view, as if an invisible being is watching the characters. It drifts, pauses and chooses where to look, and you feel that presence in the room.
How this film uses it
Żal used a separate camera, a CCTV-style unit, that stood in for death. It drifts on its own through the film, as if death is always watching the family. You may not notice it at first. Once you do, every slow drift feels like a warning.
Where to see it
Death comes for Judith and Hamnet. The drifting camera stops at the moment Hamnet looks straight into the lens, which Żal describes as death choosing him.
Ending the film where it started, or with a scene that echoes the opening. The repeat shows what has changed, or suggests the cycle will keep going.
How this film uses it
Early on, the film shows a deep hollow among the roots of an old tree in Agnes's forest. In the finale, that shape comes back as a dark doorway in the painted forest backdrop of the Globe stage. Zhao even asked for the Globe to feel like the inside of a tree.
Where to see it
The end of the Hamlet performance. Hamnet's spirit appears on stage, smiles and walks out through the dark opening that echoes the forest hollow.
Using existing music from other films or well-known pieces as the soundtrack. The pieces bring their own history and a sense of place or emotion to the scene.
How this film uses it
Composer Max Richter wrote about 30 minutes of music before filming, and Zhao played it on set to set the mood. For the ending, though, she chose Richter's older piece "On the Nature of Daylight" after Jessie Buckley, who plays Agnes, shared it during the shoot. The slow strings let the final scene unfold without hurry.
Where to see it
The Globe finale. "On the Nature of Daylight" plays as Agnes watches Hamlet die and finally lets her grief go.
Building up to a big emotional release slowly, by investing in the characters and giving small bits of hope. When the release comes, it feels deserved after all the suffering.
How this film uses it
For most of the film, Agnes has no outlet for her grief. At the Globe, she is offended at first that William has put their son's name on a play. Then she sees him playing the ghost of Hamlet's father and understands the play is his way of mourning Hamnet. By the end of the play, Agnes laughs for the first time since Hamnet died.
Where to see it
The first performance of Hamlet. As Hamlet dies, Agnes reaches toward the actor, and the crowd around her reaches out too.
Questions
Hamnet: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Hamnet use?
CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Hamnet (2025): Ecological Animism, Camera as Unseen Presence, Circular Structure, Borrowed Music and Earned Catharsis.
Who directed Hamnet?
Chloé Zhao directed Hamnet, released in 2025. CineCode also covers The Rider (2018), Nomadland (2020), Eternals (2021).
What films are similar to Hamnet?
Films that share techniques with Hamnet include Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), The Ice Storm (1997), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).
