Cythera, in Greek mythology, is the isle of dreams where one can dedicate oneself to happiness.
Voyage to Cythera is really a reworking of the myth of the Return of Odysseus according to a myth which preceded Homer. Similar to Dante's version, there is a pre-Homeric version that Odysseus set sail again after reaching Ithaca. So the film becomes more a leaving than a homecoming. Everything has already been dealt with in the ancient writings and there really is nothing new. We are all just revising and reconsidering ideas that the ancients first treated.
Voyage to Cythera is about an old man, a recently returned political exile who's been in the Soviet Union for thirty-two years and is now stateless, who cannot become reconciled to his country's present or perhaps it is Greece that is not ready to come to grips with its past.
In the end, the old man is set adrift on a raft headed away from Greece into international waters, with no home to steer toward, joined by his wife, a latter-day Penelope, who, despite the fact that this man is more a stranger than a husband to her after so many years, chooses to share the rest of her life with him and in doing so accepts all of his past, his sorrow, his politics and his failed dreams. It is a journey to the dark side of Greek history where it crosses paths with myth.
I gave this DVD to my friend, Nick the Greek. I suspect the visual impact of this movie, coupled with Eleni Karaindrou's music score, will moisten his eyes as it did mine.
P.S. For another dark side of Greece, read [this].
