C. P. Cavafy wrote “As you set out for Ithaka / hope your road is a long one” in his poem, cementing Ithaca’s cultural status as the end of a long journey, the original destination that is merely an excuse for the journey. Uberto Pasolini’s retelling of Homer’s Odyssey reconceptualises the story, focusing entirely on Odysseus’ return to Ithaca rather than his legendary journey. He also reframes the homecoming as a tragedy in this sweeping epic that had its UK premiere at the Glasgow Film Festival this year.

After twenty years fighting the Trojan War and journeying throughout the Mediterranean, Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) washes up on the beach of his home, Ithaca, only to find that the island has fallen to ruin while his queen, Penelope (Juliette Binoche), saw off the advances of her many boorish suitors. As in the poem, only his old hunting dog recognises the old man he has become, and he must set about preparing for his return to the palace.

Ralph Fiennes plays an Odysseus ravaged by PTSD and trapped in a state of perpetual war by the horrors he experienced at Troy, a man literally and metaphorically scarred by the hard years of his odyssey. Fiennes delivers an astonishing performance with great depth, even if it’s not necessarily the cunning warrior Odysseus that an audience might expect to see (and that they might see in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of the Odyssey in 2026). Fienne’s Odysseus is lost, even in his homeland, and damned by the expectation of his people and his son, Telemachus (Charlie Plummer), that he will once again drench himself in blood by slaughtering his wife’s suitors.

“THE RETURN often feels like a play, focusing on dialogue rather than visuals, but that’s no bad thing once you dial into its frequency. The script brings a lot of depth to every character while maintaining the original poem’s spirit.”

Juliette Binoche has a less showy role as Penelope, which initially seems to cast her solely as the grieving widow. As the film progresses, Binoche comes into her own and can imbue her Penelope with grief, denial, and even a subtle sense of knowingness. When Odysseus finally comes before Penelope as a stranger, Binoche delicately balances her performance between her grief for her husband and the subtle sense that she knows who this stranger is but wants – and needs – him to prove that he’s still the man he was.

THE RETURN often feels like a play, focusing on dialogue rather than visuals, but that’s no bad thing once you dial into its frequency. The script brings a lot of depth to every character while maintaining the original poem’s spirit.

In terms of structure, Pasolini ably converts the last half of Homer’s Odyssey into a single narrative by focusing on the trauma of returning home when you’re no longer the person you were when you left. There’s a scene around the middle of this two-hour film when a hunting party pursues Odysseus and Telemachus. This unnecessary action starts to feel like the problem of adding padding to expand the original story in THE HOBBIT. However, this passes quickly into a terrific final sequence that brings together all of the film’s themes and recasts Odysseus’ triumphant return home as a tragedy. The final image of blood washed off in the water serves as both a redemptive coda and a reminder of the violence that Odysseus and Penelope will never be able to wash away.