Even Shakespeare would have conceded that nothing you could make up could compete with the political chicanery of recent Balkan history.

So it’s fitting that Ralph Fiennes’ ambitious movie version of one of The Bard's most politically complex works – Coriolanus – should be shot in Belgrade and the Serbian countryside.

Fiennes himself takes on the role of Caius Martius, a ruthlessly successful warrior-commander driven by naked patriotism and the ambition of his mother Volumnia (Redgrave).

When he sees off the guerrilla army of his sworn enemy Tullus Aufidius (Butler), who he both reviles and respects, he’s encouraged to stand for a consulship on his return from the battlefield.

However, his reluctance to glad-handedly play the politician irks the public – who are on the sharp end of his austerity policies – and, instead of rising to power, he finds himself banished, leaving his mother and wife (Chastain), together with his young son.

Literally in the wilderness and with revenge consuming his every waking moment, he seeks out his old enemy Tullus…and offers to lead a conclusive attack on his old home.

It’s a brave feature debut for Fiennes, whose insistence on using the original Shakespearean dialogue could put many off, but eventually wins through by virtue of its strength as a story.

The action is neatly handled – a sort of Call of Duty in the iambic pentameter – and the original tragedy lends itself neatly to the modern update with Belgrade doubling as a sort of Baghdad without the sunshine.

There are some nice touches – news presenter Jon Snow has a cheeky cameo spouting the Bard while James Nesbitt and Paul Jesson are suitably slimy as the two tribunes planting the seeds of disaffection about Marcius’ future as a politician.

It’s a qualified success…but what Fiennes the director does next could be even more intriguing.

Tim Evans