Understanding Iago, an Italian film adaptation of Othello: clientelism, corruption, politics

‘Liberamente inspirati dell’ “OTELLO” di WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’ (‘loosely based on William Shakespeare’s Othello’), according to the closing credits, Iago (dir. Volfango di Biasi, 2009) was released on 27 February 2009 (in Italy only). While the film takes Othello as its source of stimulation, it reimagines the play in several key respects. It features a lengthy ‘preface’, taking some considerable time (over half of the film’s length) to set up the drama of act 1. Approximating iambic pentameter with a demotic Italian vernacular, Iago then proceeds to follow the plot and structure of Othello quite closely. But completing the film’s adaptive excess is an ‘additional act’: this ‘extra’ screen time shifts the anticipated ending of Othello and delivers a narrative attendant upon, and emerging from, the Shakespearian conclusions of act 5.