With an irresistible Caribbean twist, in adapting Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Barbadian filmmaker Shakirah Bourne has a character named Bottom played by a woman.

In a 21st-century retelling of this classic comedy about breaking all kinds of rules, why not?

Similarly, the music-induced madness of a Caribbean carnival—in this case, Cropover—and the lush tropical bush are perfect substitutes for Shakespeare’s classical setting and more sedate European forest.

In a Caribbean Dream, Bourne blends Bajan accents and iambic pentameter in a combination so perfect that, like the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta, it seems a match made in heaven.

In an introductory soliloquy, the beautiful changeling boy who inadvertently causes trouble between the fairy royals describes this version: it offers sunsets and flying fish, Bajan spouge music and calypso beats, mystery and magic.

A strong lineup of critically acclaimed, award-winning Caribbean films will screen at this year’s trinidad+tobago film festival (tt/ff), to be held from September 19 – 26, at MovieTowne Port of Spain, San Fernando and Tobago, as well as at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine.

The films from some of the Caribbean’s finest filmmakers, include, from the Dominican Republic, Jose Maria Cabral’s Carpinteros (Woodpeckers), a high-octane,  no-holds barred movie about a forbidden relationship conducted through prison bars and across the 200 yards of empty space dividing the male and female prisons in Santo Domingo.  Described by critics as a raw, intriguing and energetic blend of the tough and the tender, Carpinteros played at the Sundance Film Festival, to great acclaim.

Bahamian filmmaker, Kareem Mortimer’s moving and topical film, Cargo, tells the tragic story of human trafficking from the point of view of reluctant trafficker, Kevin. An American exile with a gambling addiction, living in the Bahamas, he begins smuggling Haitians to Florida in an act of desperation, to keep his secrets buried and get out of a financial bind.