SCHOOL bookings are welcome for the latest screen version of Othello which opened at The Screen, D'Olier Street, Dublin on Friday.

There is a 20 per cent discount for groups of 100 or more. All school screenings take place at 10.30 a.m. Othello is also opening at Galway's Omniplex.

Laurence Fishburne plays Othello while Irene Jacob is Desdemona and Kenneth Branagh plays Iago. The film is directed by Oliver Parker and was shot on location in Venice and at Bracciano Castle near Rome.

Parker's version of Othello differs from its previous stage and cinematic versions is that the centre of the play is the all consuming love between Othello and Desdemona. He says that he saw the play as an erotic thriller, and that is what I wanted to translate on to the big screen. Passion is the driving force of story, if very character is motivated by desire. There's an extraordinary fusion of people boiling with different passions."