PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE EMBASSY OF ITALY, THE ANU FILM GROUP, AND THE FRIENDS OF THE ANU CLASSICS MUSEUM

The ANU Classics Museum invite you to a reception and panel discussion in the ANU Classics Museum (6-7pm), followed by a FREE screening of ‘The Return’ (2024) (7.30-9.30pm) in the nearby Kambri Cultural Centre, generously supported by the Embassy of Italy and screened by the ANU Film Group.

Panel Discussion: Odysseus on Film, ANU Classics Museum, 6-7pm | AD Hope building

Join panel chair Dr Georgia Pike-Rowney (ANU Classics Museum Curator) in discussion with expert panellists Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Minchin (ANU) and Dr Estelle Strazdins (ANU). After a special welcome from Culture and Education Attaché of the Embassy of Italy, Valentina Biguzzi, the panel will reflect upon Uberto Pasolini’s 2024 interpretation of Homer’s Odyssey, ‘The Return’, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. 

Em Prof Minchin is a world authority on Homeric epics and oral poetry, and the reception of the Homeric epics through time. Her recent work focusses on emotional memory, immersion, and empathy as represented in the Homeric epics and as evoked in their audiences. Dr Strazdins is a cultural historian whose work encompasses commemoration, memory, temporality, material culture and literature across the ancient Greek, Hellenistic and Roman worlds. She has specific expertise in historical and modern receptions of ancient Greece in media and on film. 

Attendees will be served light refreshments generously provided by the committee of the Friends of the Classics Museum, and will be provided with a FREE ticket for the subsequent screening in Kambri at the Lowitja O'Donoghue Cultural Centre, a short 5 minutes’ walk from the museum.

Film Screening: ‘The Return’ (2024) M | 116 mins, 7.30-9.30pm Lowitja O'Donoghue Cultural Centre, Kambri 

Twenty years after he left to join the fighting around Troy, the legendary warrior-king Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes) finally returns to his ravaged kingdom of Ithaca. His wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) is besieged by ruthless suitors desperate to claim his throne, while their son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) is under constant threat. Disguising himself as a beggar, Odysseus must navigate the treacherous landscape of his own home, grappling with his violent past while plotting to reclaim his family and home. This grounded re-telling of the last sections of the Odyssey provides a showcase for the talents of Fiennes and Binoche. It is a raw and visceral tale of homecoming and trauma – and will no doubt prove a stark contrast to Christopher Nolan’s big-budget blockbuster version of Homer’s epic arriving next year. (FREE ticket handed out at the panel discussion event in the Classics Museum)

Registrations essential and numbers for the panel discussion strictly limited. Your free ticket for the screening will be provided at the panel event in the ANU Classics Museum.