Charlie Kaufman‘s Venice-premiering short film, “How to Shoot a Ghost,” has revealed its first trailer.
Starring Jessie Buckley and Josef Akiki, the 27-minute film — which debuts out-of-competition at Venice on Sept. 1 — follows two newly dead young people who meet on the streets of Athens, Greece. “One a translator, the other a photographer, they were outsiders in life; in death they struggle with the residue of their longings and mistakes,” the official synopsis reads. “They wander the city together, finding consolation in the difficult beauty of existence and its aftermath.”
Director and screenwriter Kaufman, who won an Oscar for best original screenplay in 2004 for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” was last on the Lido a decade ago with the animated film “Anomalisa,” which won the grand jury prize.
“I’m so pleased to be going to Venice with ‘How to Shoot a Ghost,’” Kaufman said in a statement to Variety. “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 was Oscar-nominated in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 2021 psychological drama “The Lost Daughter” and will next be seen in Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet” and Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!” as the Bride of Frankenstein. Lebanese actor Akiki recently starred in Dwan Kaoukji’s award-winning short “Canary in a Coal Mine” and Samer El Berwaki’s feature “Al Hayba.”
“How to Shoot a Ghost” was written by poet and author Eva H.D. Executive producers include Halsey, Avan Jogia, Anthony Li, Afroditi Panagiotakou, Andrew Ostapchenko, Elli Papadiamanti, Fil Ieropoulos, Foivos Dousos, Franklin P. LaViola, Jason Chayse Tyrrell, John Henry Hinkel, Kyle Mann, Matt Hartley, Nathan Mardis, Nicholas LaViola and Simos Manganis. Emily McCann Lesser and Isabelle Deluce served as producers, with Zola Elgart Glassman and Jared Ian Goldman as co-executive producers and Daniel Lugo as co-producer.
Watch the trailer for “How to Shoot a Ghost” below.