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To win back his family and all he has lost, Odysseus must rediscover his strength
Narrative
After 20 years Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, where he finds his wife held prisoner by suitors seeking to be king and his son facing death at their hands. Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche have starred in a film together for the third time.
They have previously worked together in Wuthering Heights (1992) and English Pacijant (1996)
Penelope: How can men find their way to war but not find their way home?Odysseus: For some, war becomes home.. Focused on immersing the viewer in the multifactorial pain and suffering of Penelope and Odysseus during Odysseus’s return home to Ithaca, this treatise is the field to explore quite systematically the challenges that many soldiers encounter returning from active duty, including PTSD and other mental health issues, reintegration into their former lives with family and society, and flashbacks of memories and pains both endured and inflicted , and the resulting inner change that is irreversible.
In fact the two are kept quite apart through most of the build up, which only makes the catharsis more powerful in the most intense, thriller-like later part of the otherwise slow-burn film
The Return is powered by a great choice of cast to allow the viewer to experience this rollercoaster that the two key protagonists ride to significant heights, the latter owing to the unique and particular endurance of both Penelope and Odysseus during this difficult time in their lives, and without each other's support. Fiennes brings his unique style of suffering portrayal to this work – a great extension of his wonderful skillset from his adjacent portrayals of pain and anguish in Spider and The End of the Affair.
This is a great and very relevant work that must be experienced!
Binoche is the perfect choice for Penelope as the viewer could somewhat be tricked into feeling and hoping the two will reunite in much the same way as they were close throughout The English Patient, and Pasolini exploits that to build added tension in this work in those whose recall of the English Patient is vivid.
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