Tourists flock to filming locations from The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan’s latest film, The Odyssey, is drawing tourists toward the places where it was filmed, not only audiences into cinemas. The blockbuster adapts Homer’s epic and takes viewers on an adventure through the ancient world.

Nolan is known for favouring real locations over entirely computer-generated sets, and this film follows the same approach. Shooting took place in striking locations across Greece, Italy, Morocco, Scotland and Iceland. Those sites represented places from the Odyssey, including Troy, Odysseus’s home on Ithaca and the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus.

The film has been hugely popular since its premiere in mid-July. After only four weekends in cinemas, it had become Nolan’s highest-grossing film worldwide, taking in about 133 billion Icelandic króna. Its success is already appearing in travel interest. An analysis by the education app Nibble found that Google searches related to travel to Troy rose 3,421% after the premiere. Searches for flights to Troy increased by 966%.

Some viewers also searched to find out whether Troy was a real place, suggesting that many left the cinema wondering whether Homer’s legendary city could actually be visited.

Among the Greek filming locations is Voidokilia Beach in Messenia, on the southwestern Peloponnese. The beach is known for its distinctive crescent shape and lies about 16 kilometres from the coastal town of Pylos. Above it is Nestor’s Cave, where scenes involving Polyphemus were filmed. Visitors can reach the cave by a trail from Voidokilia Beach, although the route is rocky and steep.

Favignana, the largest island in the Egadi archipelago off western Sicily, stood in for Ithaca, Odysseus’s home. The archipelago has three main islands known for their crystal-clear waters, and the crossing from Trapani takes about half an hour. The area also attracts interest for archaeological finds on the seabed around the islands.