Instead of filming the entire Odyssey, which is allegedly what Christopher Nolan is planning on doing, Uberto Pasolini has adapted the last chapter of the most important literary text in literary history. In doing so, he attempts to set the story among modern people, with modern inner conflicts. He tells a different story than Homer, even though many elements, scenes, and characters have remained. The ODYSSEY is a story of pretense, subterfuge, and revenge. THE RETURN is about trauma, guilt, and forgiveness. The most important difference is that there aren’t any Gods here, not Zeus, Poseidon, and Aphrodite, as the reason for Odysseus’ odyssey, not Pallas Athena as the helper and advisor in various human forms. Odysseus’ (Ralph Fiennes) return is delayed here because he’s ashamed that he lost all of his companions and because he can’t forget the atrocities of the massacre of Troy. Telemachos (Charlie Plummer) does not go in search of news of his father because Pallas Athena, in the guise of the wise mentor, has urged him to do so, but because he wants to escape the suitors' murder plots, and because he can no longer bear to stay in Ithaca. Telemachos wants his mother to marry to end the horror and he hates his father who has deserted the family and the country. Penelope (Juliette Binoche) immediately recognizes Odysseus even though he appears as a beggar. However, this is a possible interpretation, even in Homer's version, of the long first encounter between Penelope and Odysseus.

What’s astounding is that the film works and is even very convincing. Ralph Fiennes plays Odysseus as a broken man whose prevailing mood is endless sadness. The story becomes an impactful elegy about the devastation of the soul in war.

Tom Dorow

Translation: Elinor Lewy