“L'Odissea” from 1968 with Bekim Fehmi in the lead role – and later a world star – stood out as a series that remained quite faithful to Homer's classic work. This time, Christopher Nolan's film “The Odyssey” produced with technology, and even to the point of extinguishing the spirit of this time, is a story with the same basis, but as if it strips Odysseus a little from the legends, making him more tangible. Or softens the boundary between legend and man. The magic seems to become more visible, as is said in the opening words of the production that seems to be one of Nolan's most gigantic, which also counts an “Oscar” among its trophies. In the three days of the screening in Kosovo, it has broken viewer records, and its arrival was also preceded by the story about the soundtrack with Albanian sounds
Islamic Vigilance
A model of the Trojan Horse is the image that awaits the viewer. It is a discovery to introduce the audience to the world of storytelling even before turning on the projector. And the images of the internationally renowned Kosovo actor, Bekim Fehmiu, take the audience back to the “Odysseus” who made history in the late 60s. But this time, the audience of “Cineplexx” flocks to the cinema for another “Odysseus”, that of Christopher Nolan who has conquered screens all over the globe. “L'Odissea” of 1968 with Fehmiu in the lead role – and later a world star – stood out as a series that remained quite faithful to Homer's classic work. And this time, Nolan's film, produced with technology, and even to the point of extinguishing the spirit of this time, is a story with the same basis, but as if it strips Odysseus a little of the legends, making him more tangible. Or it blurs the line between legend and man. The magic seems to become more visible, as is said in the opening words of the production that seems to be one of Nolan's greatest, which also counts an Oscar among its trophies.
“It is a time of apparent magic” are among the opening words of the film. And this warning is the axis of the cinematic production that brings prehistory back to the screen. The narrative of the 8th and 7th centuries BC is well-known. After the 10-year Trojan War, the Greeks defeat the Trojans with the trick of a horse as a gift. And the challenge of the king of Ithaca is to return home. “The Odyssey” is a narrative with which the director communicates to new generations through a story of legends that takes place here and there about 2,700 years ago. Matt Damon in the role of Odysseus is loyal to his homeland, Ithaca. To his wife, his son, and his fellow countrymen. The challenge of returning to Ithaca is a story in itself. He faces everything. He doesn’t stop. Nolan deliberately seems to have softened the boundaries of humanity with those of legend. Odysseus often resembles a modern-day man who is in another time. As the director and actor themselves have confessed to international media, they have worked hard for this. The photography in the film is something that skillfully turns back time. It was shot in several places. And Nolan has managed to use Hollywood's capabilities to bring a legend to the screen.
Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway, is the other story within the big story. She faces many suitors on the Odysseus front. She remains faithful to her husband, even though she doesn't know if he lives or not during the two decades they haven't seen each other. Nolan has given great importance to their son, Telemachus, played by Tom Holland. He doesn't just set out to find his father, but unlike other versions, he has an almost protagonist role.
While in 1968 in "L'Odissea" as a television series of "Rai" a co-production between Italy, France and Germany under the direction of Franco Rossi, Albanians were in the film through Bekim Fehmiu, this time they are in iso-polyphony. This fact only increases the interest of the Albanian public in the film.
"The record for ticket sales at IMAX has been broken, with over 2000 tickets sold in three days," said the director of "Cineplexx", Milazim Salihu. The fact that the film's soundtrack also includes sounds from Albanian iso-polyphony and the flutes of Albanian shepherds is a curiosity in itself for the public of these parts. Iso-polyphony, which has been part of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List since 2005, has now taken on another global dimension, a more powerful one, as part of a Hollywood cinematic narrative.
Behind the scenes of “The Odyssey”: From Homer to Albanian iso-polyphony
It was the soundtrack composer himself, Ludwig Göransson, who was determined for this.
“‘I’m not making a 50s Hollywood movie,’” Nolan recalls telling Göransson. “If we’re not following that tradition, then there’s no point in relying on a classical orchestra. So the question was: what can we create instead?” the director told film critic Birge Ebiri in an interview with New York Magazine.
It seems clear that classical instruments such as piano, violin or other instruments that are part of an orchestra and are considered instruments of a fairly high class and of a fairly developed period, were not suitable for a film with a prehistoric narrative. Thus, woodwind instruments, such as flutes, which are musical instruments that also resemble the human voice and touch the feeling of nature along with the mystery within it, caught the composer's attention.
His research took him to the south of Albania. There he recorded an ancient singing style with the “Youth of Delvina”, a centuries-old tradition of polyphonic singing, as well as the sounds of the fiddles that Albanian shepherds have used for thousands of years. He also enlisted the help of Vendim Kapaj, a self-taught performer of the fiddle and the two-stringed lute. Assisted by Albanian ethnomusicologist Vasil Tole, the Albanian film crew also figures among the general staff.
"Director Nolan's approach and Goransson's boundless talent (winner of the 'Oscar' award for the music of the film 'Oppenheimer', naturally turned their attention to the thousand-year-old musical traditions of our people, of Labëria and Toskëria, vocal and instrumental. Undoubtedly, their inclusion in the film's music (music performed by Gramsh's flute players, the Delvina Boys group and the flute player Vendim Kapaj-Vlorë), are a worldwide confirmation of the extraordinary artistic and musical values of our people," wrote academician Tole on social networks.
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In "Odyssey," sounds from Albanian iso-polyphony as well as the flutes of Albanian shepherds are part of the soundtrack whenever Ithaca is mentioned.
In one of the scenes at the beginning of the film, when Telemachus trains on the rocks with the sea in the background, Gramsh's flutes are heard, one holding the ison and the other the melody, with the long sound as support and the other flutes creating the polyphonic acoustic echo.
"For me, the date July 1, 2025 will remain in my memory, from where, together with the composer Ludwig Göransson and his recording team, for 5 hours of intensive work, we recorded various parts with folk instruments, tiring work, but very beautiful. Thank you, composer Ludwig Göransson, that through your tireless work, I feel privileged that you made my music with folk instruments, as well as the wonderful sounds of the labe song, together with great world artists," Kapaj wrote on social networks. Music is an added value of the film and adds to it the shadow of legends. And the entire production is described as something unexpected.
"I think it's an extraordinary version. Perfect acting by Matt Damon and the other actors. No one else in the world except Hollywood can bring us works like this to the screen!", said actor and producer Fatmir Spahiu. According to him, the film has exceeded expectations.
"It was almost an extraordinary three hours!" he said.
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Nolan's "The Odyssey" is not only Nolan's grandest film in terms of scale, but perhaps his quietest and most melancholic, according to critic Bilge Ebiri. According to the critic, it continues the atmosphere of psychological and civilizational despair that characterized his previous film, the Oscar-winning "Oppenheimer."
"To say more would reveal too much of the story," he wrote, among other things. And, Noaln, who with "The Odyssey" seems to have wanted to leave many things unsaid or say them silently, giving more life to photography and portraiture as narrators, has given a new dimension to Hollywood cinematography with this production. Even the dimension of the story of Odysseus, who every time he appears, has something to tell and never belongs to just one time.
