There could hardly be a more appropriate moment for the film Penelope, which has just been released on Amazon Prime.
With the Odyssey once again everywhere, Penelope offers a very different take on Homer’s ancient story. Rather than following Odysseus on his epic journey, Penelope explores the experience of the woman left behind — interweaving the passage of time with a sense of absence, memory, waiting and longing.
The film was shot in Croatia and is in Croatian, placing this ancient Greek story in the Balkans in the aftermath of the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. The juxtaposition is deliberate: Homer’s themes of war, separation, loss and return acquire an added resonance in a landscape that had itself so recently experienced devastating conflict.
The film has received thoughtful critical and academic attention for its distinctive, dreamlike visual style and unconventional approach to storytelling.
“hypnotic, moody, melancholy and very beautiful,” Rosalie Higson, The Australian
The haunting original score is by Max Richter, whose music has since reached an even wider audience through films such as Hamnet.
So, at this extraordinary moment of renewed interest in the Odyssey, Penelope offers a fresh take — a story of Homer’s world seen not through the eyes of the hero, but through those of the woman waiting for him.
Watch Penelope on Amazon Prime: