Director Uberto Pasolini finally unveils his adaptation of The Odyssey, a long-in-the-making project that brings together two greats of European cinema. The French release is scheduled for June 18, 2025. It took the Italian filmmaker sixteen years of reflection and preparation to bring this film to fruition, more than the ten years it took Odysseus to return to Ithaca. An expectation that matches the ambition: to offer an intimate and realistic reinterpretation of Homer's famous poem, far removed from traditional mythological tales.
A film awaited for more than a decade
It took Ulysses ten years to return to Ithaca. Uberto Pasolini, on the other hand, waited even longer to complete The Return, his stripped-down reinterpretation of The Odyssey. In an interview with GuardianThe Italian filmmaker says he had dreamed of this adaptation for nearly thirty years, without ever daring to take the plunge until Ralph Fiennes pushed him to do so. Initially considered as director, the British actor ultimately preferred to play Ulysses, leaving the film's helm to Pasolini.
The turning point came at a dinner in 2022, where Fiennes, seduced by the role, convinced the director he was ready. All that remained was to find Penelope. It was Fiennes, again, who suggested Juliette Binoche, with whom he had co-starred in The English Patient. Enthusiastic, the actress accepted, thus completing a charismatic central duo. Shot in just two months between Corfu and the outskirts of Rome, the film was made on a modest budget of $20 million—a far cry from the $250 million allocated to Christopher Nolan's upcoming adaptation of The Odyssey, expected in 2026.
An intimate and disenchanted reinterpretation of The Odyssey
Pasolini opted for a realistic version, refocusing on the final pages of Homer's poem. Here, there are no gods or mythical creatures, but a human, almost political, confrontation, tested by return. Odysseus, broken and aged by war, washes up in Ithaca after two decades of absence. He discovers an unrecognizable kingdom, a son, Telemachus, threatened by his mother's suitors, and a harassed wife, driven to choose a new king.
More than an adventure story, The Return promises to be a sober and tense tragedy about loss, memory, and the weight of power. Fiennes, in a restrained role, portrays a wounded hero, far from the triumphant conqueror. Juliette Binoche, as Penelope, embodies a strong but cornered woman, caught in a patriarchal vice.
Against the grain of spectacular adaptations, Uberto Pasolini delivers a refined and dramatic variation on the return of the king, a reflection on time, loyalty, and identity. A long-term project that will open in France on June 18, a few months before Nolan's big-screen version. Two visions of the myth, two ways of questioning our relationship to its founding narratives.
