Cannes 2024: “Lili” Blends Macbeth and Interactive Gaming to Explore Power and Censorship in Iran

Shakespeare Rewired: How “Lili” at Cannes Signals a New Era for Interactive Storytelling

At the 2024 Cannes Festival, the boundary between art forms blurred in a way that felt both inevitable and electrifying. The debut of “Lili”—a video game adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, set amidst the surveillance-laden streets of modern Iran—marked not just a creative experiment, but a watershed moment for narrative media. In a world where the lines between film, theater, and gaming are dissolving, “Lili” stands as a testament to the power of cross-disciplinary collaboration and the evolving language of storytelling.

The Universal Tragedy in a Contemporary Cage

By transposing Lady Macbeth’s tragic arc into the reality of contemporary Iran, iNK Stories and the Royal Shakespeare Company have done more than update a classic—they have unearthed its beating heart for a new generation. The choice of setting is far from arbitrary. Iran’s complex socio-political landscape, marked by authoritarian surveillance and entrenched gender restrictions, provides a potent backdrop for Shakespeare’s timeless meditation on ambition, guilt, and power.

The protagonist’s struggle is rendered with poignant specificity: even the simple act of accessing a YouTube makeup tutorial becomes a symbol of systemic repression. This everyday indignity resonates as both a lived reality and a metaphor for the broader machinery of censorship and patriarchal control. In this context, the familiar becomes unsettlingly novel, compelling players to interrogate not just the narrative, but their own assumptions about freedom, agency, and resistance.

Interactive Media as Political Theater

“Lili” is not content to be passively observed. Instead, it enlists its audience as active participants—inviting them to embody a hacker, navigating the shadowy digital realm of the Hecate Web. Here, the mythic witches of Macbeth are recast as digital specters, guiding the protagonist through a labyrinth of surveillance and subterfuge. This narrative device is more than a clever update; it reflects a broader trend in interactive media, where players are called to interrogate, not merely witness, the unfolding drama.

The fusion of live-action footage and gameplay—evocative of titles like “Telling Lies” and “Immortality”—places “Lili” at the vanguard of hybrid storytelling. The result is an experience that is at once cinematic and participatory, collapsing the distance between audience and character. This approach taps into a growing appetite for immersive narratives that challenge the conventions of both gaming and film, promising deeper engagement and emotional resonance.

Market Forces and the Ethics of Immersion

The inclusion of “Lili” in Cannes’ Immersive Competition signals more than artistic novelty; it is a strategic recognition of shifting market dynamics. As the definitions of cinema and interactive entertainment converge, projects like “Lili” are poised to reshape how intellectual property is developed, distributed, and monetized. The planned expansion into stage and film adaptations points to a future where stories are not confined to a single medium, but unfold across an ecosystem of platforms.

Yet, with these new frontiers come new dilemmas. As immersive media ventures deeper into real-world settings and politically charged narratives, questions of ethics and regulation loom large. The simulation of state surveillance and authoritarian control within a game format may attract scrutiny from regulators, especially in regions sensitive to political dissent or depictions of state power. Issues of data privacy, content censorship, and the psychological impact of interactive political narratives are likely to become flashpoints for debate as the genre matures.

The Future: Art as Catalyst for Change

Ultimately, “Lili” is more than a technical achievement or a clever adaptation—it is a bold experiment in what storytelling can be. By reimagining Shakespeare through the lens of contemporary Iran, it asks audiences to confront uncomfortable truths about power, identity, and resistance. It invites international players to move beyond stereotypes, to engage with the complexities of life under repression, and to see in the struggles of others a mirror of their own potential for agency.

This is the promise—and the challenge—of multidisciplinary, interactive storytelling in the digital age. As art, technology, and politics converge, projects like “Lili” illuminate new pathways for empathy, dialogue, and change. The stage is set for a future where stories do not merely reflect the world, but help to shape it.