For many the thought of re-litigating lockdown might cause them to run screaming, after all it was only three years ago it officially ended, and the fallout is still being played out in political arenas, on tv and in our homes. The raft and awful, and frankly boring, lockdown media might make anything else coming to the fore something to avoid but from that time of isolation and loneliness comes this charming little documentary.

Grand Theft Hamlet is exactly what it sounds like. Filmed entirely within the world of Grand Theft Auto Online, two out-of-work actors, Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, play GTA, and after a while realise that the space could be a perfect area to stage a production of Hamlet. Into the game comes Pinny Grylls, Crane's wife, to document their attempt to make it a reality.

For people unfamiliar with GTA Online, it's the game you know, violence, stealing cars, shooting people etc… but you can play it with people from all around the world and if you have a microphone and headphones you can also hear people from all around the world call you racial slurs. The film has a very British humour, Crane and Oosterveen have excellent comic timing and their banter is very entertaining.

Naturally the comedy evolves from just two people shooting random people to them trying to hold auditions while the rest of the online world wants to commit carnage. The film deals with the themes of art, loneliness and how online we can be whatever we want to be… or not to be. One such gamer enjoys making his character look like a space alien, another person who joins the play speaks of recently transitioning and how the game can help them establish their new identity.

This all sounds very heavy and indeed there is genuine emotion in two men trying to complete their dream in a (fake) world that doesn't really care, but moreover, it speaks to a time when our online lives might take over our real lives. Grylls makes a point of speaking with her husband about his absence in the home while he obsesses over this production and Oosterveen makes the point that this is all he has.

Despite the darkness around the film's themes – mass deaths caused by an incompetent government that partied while innocent lives were lost – this is a reminder that art can, when we need it to, transport us away. You find yourself genuinely rooting for these two Alan Partridge-esque figures to put on their weird production. Free Guy could never.

Grand Theft Hamlet is screening at London Film Festival 2024