Six countries, 91 days of filming, and nearly one hundred hours of IMAX film footage: an undertaking worthy of Homer’s narration. With his new film, The Odyssey, Oscar-winning director Christopher Nolan has created a monumental cinematic work that redefines the possibilities of contemporary cinema and traditional storytelling, favouring locations and natural landscapes over digital effects. In this film, Italy also features in Odysseus’ long journey.
Filming for Nolan's The Odyssey, which began in February 2025, took place in Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Scotland, and the United States (with some interior set design on soundstages in California). The extraordinary cast includes Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as Telemachus, Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Robert Pattinson as Antinous, Lupita Nyong'o as Helen, Zendaya as the goddess Athena, and Charlize Theron as the nymph Calypso.
With a screenplay written by Nolan himself, The Odyssey traces Odysseus’ epic return to Ithaca after the fall of Troy, narrated in the poem attributed to Homer which was composed about four centuries after those historical events. Nolan's The Odyssey is a tragically savage tale, more archaic than epic. In The Odyssey, everything is earthly, authentic, and concrete. Nolan doesn't create a fantasy world; he captures the magic of the real world and delivers a tale where history and the supernatural blend without fiction.
Matt Damon's Odysseus embarks on a human journey, one that begins with the grandeur of his genius and proverbial cunning, to then traverse the tragedy and drama, personal and universal, that this generates. In narrating a journey that doesn't conform to the traditional representation of the Greek poem, one purged of the classical epic’s romantic vision, Nolan closes the circle traced by Homer. His Odyssey begins with the deep wound caused by arrogance, the arrogance of both one man and all humanity, it passes through the painful realization of failure, and seeks atonement, through suffering and hardship, for the mistakes made.
Nolan not only seeks realism in the narrative, but also draws a precise emotional geography of Odysseus’ journey. “A lot of this work is about material texture. For me, a big part of that is using real-world solutions, immersing yourself in nature, going to real locations, and using all of that to shape reality. Extreme climates and landscapes were essential; I wanted to create a world where you could truly imagine being on that boat with Odysseus, where you could understand a worldview that interpreted natural conditions as the incarnations or expressions of stormy and fickle divinities. Part of the thrill of doing this work itself lay in the creative process of figuring out how to take incredible ideas and extravagant scenarios and make them real,” explained Christopher Nolan.
For The Odyssey (summary), Troy, with its beaches where the extraordinary horse, both a gift and a deception created by Odysseus' genius, is discovered, was built in Morocco. The waves of the stormy sea are those crashing on the coasts of Scotland. Iceland lent its lands to represent Hades, and Greece hosted the cave inhabited by the Cyclops Polyphemus. Ithaca, recreated on the island of Favignana in the Aegadian Islands of Sicily, is where most of the story unfolds, the heart and destination of Odysseus's entire journey.
The three week shoot on the island was one of the most challenging due to the difficult terrain, with its cliffs and rugged paths. But the allure of the Mediterranean island and the location and structure of the Castle of Santa Caterina, made the setting irresistible to Nolan and production designer Ruth De Jong: "It was a profoundly impractical location. But when we climbed up to the castle and saw the view, it immediately seemed like Ulysses' home. It just looked like Ithaca."
The 15th century Castle of Santa Caterina, perched on Mount Santa Caterina, approximately 314m. above sea level, was used for Ulysses' palace. Robert Pattinson, Matt Damon, and other actors recalled the climb as one of the most challenging experiences of the entire production. "It was a 45-minute walk up a hill in sandals and full costume," Pattinson explained. "But it does something to you. You really feel like you're on a mission to a place."
Nolan explained: “To achieve the grandeur of this film, you wanted to be in extraordinary, hard-to-reach, and complex locations to shoot in. This was, by far, the most intense and demanding shoot on a human level of any film we've ever made.”
Scenes were also filmed in Lipari, Basiluzzo, and Vulcano (April - May 2025). The interior of Odysseus’ palace was created on soundstages in California, incorporating Bronze Age architectural details and elements and drawing inspiration from the style and materials of Santa Caterina.