The Odyssey shooting locations: Explore the 5 real places behind Christopher Nolan's masterpiece
The Odyssey shooting locations: Explore the 5 real places behind Christopher Nolan's masterpiece
For nearly 3,000 years, people have told and retold the story of Odysseus trying to find his way home. Now Christopher Nolan has brought that journey to the big screen, and he did not want any of it to feel fake.
Christopher Nolan took his cast and crew into the real world. Over 91 days of filming, spread across six months, they travelled to deserts, sea caves, old castles and open waters, searching for real locations that already looked as though they belonged in an ancient story. Here are five of those places where the film and the real world come together.
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Morocco's Ait Benhaddou: Old clay walls, worn down by hundreds of years of sun and wind. This place looks as though it is straight out of an ancient story, with no special effects needed. Every crack in the wall already looks like history. In the film, this is where the city of Troy comes to life, including its fall at the end of the Trojan War.
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Greece's Voidokilia Beach and Nestor's Cave: A beach shaped like a perfect curve, next to a cave that becomes pitch black just a few steps in. Stand at the entrance and you will feel the air turn cold before your eyes even adjust. This is where the Cyclops sequence was filmed, the part of the story where Odysseus and his men are trapped by Polyphemus.
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Italy's Castello di Santa Caterina: This old castle in Favignana, part of the Aegadian Islands, also known as Goat Island, sits almost 1,000 feet above the sea, with a clear view in every direction. This is where the Ithaca palace scenes were filmed, showing Penelope and Telemachus waiting and trying to hold off the suitors.
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Scotland's Findlater Castle: This half ruined castle sits on a cliff above the sea in Scotland. It does not need any extra decoration to feel magical or eerie. In the film, this ruin becomes Circe's cave, where the sorceress turns Odysseus's men into pigs.
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Iceland's Hjorleifshofdi: Black sand, sharp volcanic rock and grey skies that seem to shift every few minutes. This part of Iceland feels wild and a little dangerous, even when standing still. This coastline was visited by Odysseus during his trip to the Underworld (Book 11), and he goes there to meet the prophet Tiresias.
