Thursday, April 30 at 6:00pm
Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago
Free screening, with registration
After 20 years away, Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The King has finally returned home but much has changed in his kingdom since he left to fight in the Trojan war. His beloved wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) is now a prisoner in her own home, hounded by her many ambitious suitors to choose a new husband, a new king. Their son Telemachus, who has grown up fatherless, is facing death at the hands of the suitors who see him as an obstacle in their relentless pursuit of Penelope and the kingdom. Odysseus has changed too. Scarred by his experience of war, he is no longer the mighty warrior his people remember. But he is forced to face his past in order to rediscover the strength needed to save his family and win back the love he has lost.
An Odyssey of the spirit, without journeys, without monsters, without gods. Only an exhausted man returning home after years away, a steadfast wife struggling to keep faith in his unexpected return, and a son’s journey into adulthood, torn between his love for his mother and the weight of his father’s legend. A family separated by time and war, reunited by love, guilt, and violence.
Year: 2024
Duration: 116′
Language: English
Country: Italy/Greece/UK/France
Genre: adventure, historical drama
The screening is part of the series Moto Continuo Film Showcase, inspired by the theme leading the 2026 programming of the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago. The selected titles explore the concept of movement through recent works by Italian film directors: epic journeys, emotional tensions, and cultural currents intertwine to convey the complexity of the historical and social processes that have contributed to shaping the Italian cultural identity.
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