Odysseus is still alive. In front of an abandoned building, he recounts his feats in a video filled with lies and sexism. Leucosia, a winged siren Odysseus escaped from once, intervenes by chasing him off and seizing the video camera. Leucosia follows Odysseus into the building and finds the women of the Odyssey, clandestine and immortal: Nausicaa the princess of the Phaeacians, the sorceress Circe, the nymph Calypso and, finally, Queen Penelope. Leucosia films the recounts of the women, which turn out to be quite different from those of the hero, who, meanwhile, gets a lecture from his mother, right before approaching a completely rewritten finale.

The short film develops from the poems of The Odyssey in Six Sonnets by Barbara Hamby whose protagonists expose the lies of the hero with dark and irreverent humour. Roberta Cortese reunites them with their beloved/hated one, and sets the story in an abandoned building, whose peeling walls stand for centuries of warfare between opposing narratives. The story follows the path of the siren Leucosia, armed with a video camera, generating escape room modes and subjective shots supported by a strong musical component. The new female narration elegantly overturns the patriarchy and rewrites the myth.

Director
Roberta Cortese
Story
Roberta Cortese (The Odyssey in Six Sonnets di Barbara Hamby)
Screenplay
Roberta Cortese
Director of photography
Set Design
Roberta Cortese
Costume Design
Alessandra Berardi
Original Music
Giorgio Ferrero, Rodolfo Mongitore
Altri credits

Margot Mecca (Responsabile sviluppo); Luigi Chiarella (Script Consultant)

Cast and characters

Roberta Cortese, Gianluca Gambino, Olivia Manescalchi, Simona Nasi, Franca Penone, Irene Possenti, Maria Grazia Solano

Organizzatore generale
Executive production
Giorgio Ferrero, Margot Mecca
Producer
Roberta Cortese, Giorgio Ferrero, Marco Quartana
Production
Mybosswas, Satyrikon
con il sostegno di Film Commission Torino Piemonte - Short Film Fund - dicembre 2021; Media Creative Europe 2022 (EU); BMKÖS 2022 (AT); Ministero della Cultura 2023
Last update: 20 September 2024