Al Pacino as Shakespeare's Jew Shylock in "Merchant of Venice" film

Hollywood actor Al Pacino has accepted the role of the Jewish moneylender Shylock in a new cinema version of the Shakespeare play "The Merchant of Venice''. The actor argues that the film successfully addresses long-standing controversy over the work's anti-Semitism. Director Michael Radford, speaking to reporters after the film's screening at the Venice Film Festival, added that his movie should not be regarded as a tale just about tensions between Christians and Jews, but as a comment on the very modern problem of two cultures at odds. Radford's production begins with written titles that give context on persecution of the Jews in 16th-century Venice. It closes with a shot of the broken, tormented Shylock being locked in the ghetto that restricted Jews to a tiny quarter of the city. Pacino said he had never thought he would play Shylock, but accepted the role because Radford had put together a script that addressed certain issues that were important to deal with. Shakespeare's play tells of an anti-Semitic merchant who is bound by contract to give a pound of his flesh to Shylock for failing to repay a loan. However, it is Shylock who ultimately faces ruin when a court rules against him, humiliating and ruining the man.