Behind the Scenes

About the film “The Odyssey”. Spoiler alert! Odysseus will eventually make it home. (If anyone in the 21st century gets spoiled about Odysseus, I think that’s their own fault.) From the first few minutes, I also approached the film very conservatively. What are these costumes? What is this cast? Why is an Indian actor playing a Greek? Can Matt Damon really be Odysseus?! How much more money is Hollywood going to spend bringing this bastard home?! I got so angry, as if Homer were Dede Gorgud, and the Iliad and the Odyssey were our sacred Book. Then I thought, why are you being so protective of Greek culture?! Who are you anyway?! Then I remembered that I haven’t even read the Iliad or the Odyssey. I’ve only seen them in films. After that, I started watching the film more comfortably and fell under its spell. Suddenly, the film was over. And I am sad. The music won’t leave my head. And the feelings left by the film won’t leave me either... There are many people who didn’t like the film. Many of them say that it is far from the original text. But I don’t think the film ever claimed to be a direct adaptation. The international cast is also part of the director’s decision. Because the film is not really about Ancient Greece; it is a cinematic interpretation of a Greek myth that has travelled through all eras and reached the present day. If you put modern military uniforms on those characters, they could be American soldiers returning from Iraq. Maybe the lotus flower that Odysseus ate for seven years and that made him forget his past was actually an antidepressant. How can we know that his suffering wasn’t Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after the war?! That is exactly where the power of myths lies. They can belong to all eras and to all people. Perhaps the Trojan Horse was humanity’s first great act of deception and betrayal. The moment when the strategy of using other people’s beliefs to destroy them was born. At that time, people violated Zeus’s rule of hospitality. From that day on, neither the house receiving a guest nor the guest himself was considered sacred. After the Trojan War, a Dark Age began in Greek history. People realized that such things could be done. And a great civilization began to disappear. Writing disappeared. The Dark Age continued until Homer wrote the Odyssey. It lasted five centuries! Even today, people create such strategies to destroy other people. Even today, “Trojan Horses” are built to win wars. Somewhere in the world, another Odysseus is trying to return home from war. Maybe another Dark Age is beginning in human history. Time will tell. I think that’s what Nolan’s film was about too...