Why Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ still speaks to our times
War is temporary, but the individual recovery from it is riddled with guilt and physical and mental trauma, much of which continues to be discussed today
Published: 02:08 PM,Aug 09,2026 | EDITED : 06:08 PM,Aug 09,2026
The highest-grossing and most anticipated film of 2026, Christopher Nolan’s 'The Odyssey', has been reviewed with much adulation and critique that is typical of an ambitious film.
'The Odyssey' is, of course, based on the oral epic by the same name, attributed to the Greek poet Homer around 725 to 675 BCE. In effect, it is the culmination of a series of stories that would have existed in the wider Greek world towards the end of the Bronze Age.
Odysseus, the protagonist of the epic, is one of the main characters of an earlier epic, the Iliad, which revolved around the rescue of Helen of Troy - an epic battle that lasted 10 years. Odysseus is returning to his home on the island of Ithaca but faces multiple challenges in the form of divine interference, storms and monsters.
As a Greek epic composed over 3,000 years ago, 'The Odyssey' may not, at first glance, have much in common with a hyper-connected, digitalised 21st century. And yet, the film has generated an intense interest in the epic genre, the dynamics of the characters, and most importantly, the themes which the epic, through Nolan’s film, focuses upon.
At its heart, 'The Odyssey' is a sweeping tale about homecoming, loyalty, identity and displacement. Nolan himself says, “It’s a love story, it’s a coming-of-age story, it’s a story about war and homecoming”. These concerns belong not only to the world of ancient Greece but also to our own, and the story, as much as the film, reflects some of its deepest anxieties and contradictions of our times.
An important theme in 'The Odyssey' is displacement, migration and belonging. Going through multiple places in his epic journey, Odysseus is confronted with questions of what it means to have a home to come back to, what the memory of that home means, and how a return would allow him to claim his rightful identity.
Clearly, home is an important concept in today’s global world order. With stories of refugees, migrations and separations, home becomes a central symbol of belonging amidst the uncertainties of the outside world.
War is another central point of discussion in 'The Odyssey', being central to the narrative, but also to the development of the central character who finds himself conflicted with the heroism, treachery and utter destruction of the war he has left behind.
Today, the story of the Trojan horse, which is used by the Greeks to defeat their enemy, has become a tale of duplicity rather than heroism. It also showcases the complete vacuity of war and its resultant miseries for all.
Surely, this is a theme relevant to our current times when nation states are involved in endless and even senseless wars.
Just as importantly, the epic centres the distinction between winning a war and recovering from war. War is temporary, but the individual recovery from it is riddled with guilt and physical and mental trauma, much of which continues to be discussed today.
Just as much as a tale of homecoming, 'The Odyssey' is about identity. Odysseus himself is a flawed character, both in the epic and more centrally in the film. He makes the return home a matter of personal pride, overriding the advice of a host of fellow sailors, all of whom die for his indiscretions and faulty decisions. The quality of leadership is central to discourse on political affairs even today.
In retelling Odysseus’s journey for a 21st-century audience, Nolan reminds us that, while the world of 'The Odyssey' may have changed since Homer’s time, many of the questions, issues and concerns confronting human beings have not. Perhaps that accounts for its current popularity.