Oscar-winning director inundated with complaints as culture minister defends decision to give epic a £5.6m subsidy
Sir Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey has divided Greece before its world premiere.
The Oscar-winning director’s latest film, which is based on Homer’s epic poem of ancient Greece, will be screened in London on Monday.
But the adaptation, starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and Zendaya, does not feature a single Greek actor.
And the decision to cast Kenyan Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy [pictured above] has provoked criticism.
Over the course of The Odyssey’s production, Greek and Greek Cypriot media platforms wrote open letters to Sir Christopher’s team and Hollywood, stating that Greek people “did not vanish” and were “still here” as “a living people whose story has never stopped being written”.
“We are not asking for exclusion or limitation,” wrote one such letter in Greek City Times. “We are not arguing against diversity, nor against reinterpretation. Greek culture itself has always been shaped by exchange, migration, and encounter across centuries.
“What we are asking is something simpler and more human. That, when Greek stories are retold on a global stage, Greek people are not rendered invisible within them.”
Yannis Smaragdis, a filmmaker, said it would be “despicable” if Sir Christopher made the decision to cast Nyong’o to meet Academy Award diversity requirements.
Elon Musk, the tech billionaire, called Sir Christopher an “anti-white racist” over the casting of the Oscar-winning 12 Years A Slave actress in the role of Helen, saying he had “desecrated” Homer’s work.
Elsewhere, the casting of trans actor Elliot Page caused an uproar on social media about historical accuracy. Page was initially reported to be playing Achilles, although it subsequently emerged that the actor’s role is Sinon, the Greek who tricks the Trojans into allowing the famous wooden horse into their city.
Lina Mendoni, the Greek culture minister, was forced to address calls for state intervention during production after it was revealed that the ministry of culture had granted The Odyssey a reported €6.5m (£5.6m) in subsidies.
She maintained that the Greek government’s approach since 2019 had been to treat culture as a strategic national investment and that “art cannot be censored”.
The Hollywood blockbuster will showcase some of Greece’s most historic landmarks, including the Palace of Nestor in Pylos and the town of Methoni, both in the Peloponnese.
Speaking to Athens-based LiFO magazine, the minister said: “It is not the role of the state to dictate how a creator interprets a work or a myth.
“Are we seriously discussing whether the state should censor Christopher Nolan?”
When the trailer for The Odyssey was released in May, there were complaints on social media that the cast spoke with American accents.
Others objected to the fact that Antinous (Robert Pattinson) teased Odysseus’s son, Telemachus (Tom Holland), for missing his “daddy”, claiming that the term had no place in ancient Greece.
After July 6, The Odyssey will be screened for critics only, in a move by Universal and Sir Christopher that bucks the trend of studios inviting fan-site bloggers and influencers to post enthusiastic reviews on social media in advance of a film’s general release in an attempt to pre-empt bad reviews.
The Odyssey will be released in cinemas on July 17, including several full screenings at the BFI Imax after a limited drop of tickets sold out a year in advance at the venue.
