Odysseus is still alive. In the park of an abandoned villa, 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 villa and finds the women of the Odyssey, clandestine and immortal: Nausicaa the princess of the Phaeacians, the sorceress Circe, the nymph Calypso and, finally, Penelope. The stories which Leucosia films turn out to be quite different from those of the hero, who, meanwhile, gets a lecture from his mother. To settle the matter, at the siren's song Penelope lures Odysseus into an erotic game, in which Circe and Calypso join in, but in the end Odysseus finds himself tied to a pole and left into the hands of Leucosia, who pounces on him. With the blessing of demi-goddesses and sirens, Penelope can finally rule over Ithaca without any male interference - Odysseus is not dead after all: he has learned his lesson and makes himself useful.

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 areal subjective shots supported by a strong musical component. The scenography develops the scenic leitmotif of yarn and fabric as a metaphor for female narration, which 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
Set Design
Roberta Cortese
Costume Design
Alessandra Berardi
Original Music
Giorgio Ferrero, Rodolfo Mongitore
Altri credits

Luigi Chiarella (Script Consultant)

Cast and characters

Lorenzo Fontana, Sophia Leu, Olivia Manescalchi, Simona Nasi, Franca Penone, Irene Possenti, Maria Grazia Solano.

Organizzatore generale
Executive production
Margot Mecca
Producer
Roberta Cortese, Giorgio Ferrero
Production
Mybosswas, Satyrikon
con il sostegno di Film Commission Torino Piemonte - Short Film Fund - dicembre 2021; Media Slate 2022 (EU); BMKÖS 2022 (AT)
Last update: 12 April 2023