The Return (2024)
Director: Uberto Pasolini
After twenty years of fighting in and returning from the Trojan War, Odysseus washes up nude on the shores of his home island, Ithaca, after a brief introduction on-screen about himself and the conflict. He is a completely different person from the powerful warrior-king who departed decades ago because of the psychological and physical scars he has sustained. Now imprisoned in her own palace, his wife Penelope is being pressured by numerous suitors to select a new husband who will succeed to the throne. People who see Telemachus as a danger to their goals are putting him in danger of dying. He is the son of Odysseus and Penelope. If Odysseus wants to save his family and regain what he has lost, he must confront his past.
Because her father-in-law is near death, Penelope weaves his burial shroud on her loom. She informs her snobbish, avaricious suitors that she will not select one of them until the shroud is completed. But each night she opens the shroud a little. Penelope frequently witnesses her maids engaging in sexual relations with the suitors.
Having never met his father, Telemachus is tormented by the suitors. A man is found in the sea by two suitors, who claim that no more suitors are required and throw him back. The same suitors hunt a girl back on land, and when they discover that she is not in her boyfriend’s tent, they rape and murder him. The well-dressed Antinous, the chief suitor, pressures Penelope to wed, but she declines.
Odysseus is found ashore by Swineherd Eumaeus, who takes him home. Dejected Odysseus recounts the atrocities of the War, which continually haunt him.
When Odysseus’ father passes away, the suitors pressure Penelope to wed them, claiming Odysseus is also dead. She says she will make the shroud her wedding gown, but she also says she will pick a suitor soon. She wonders in private how long she will be able to endure that.
Odysseus’ dog recognizes him as Eumaeus brings him to the palace. Most suitors mistreat him, and he begs for food while referring to himself as an old war soldier. They make him battle a giant, but Odysseus murders him. Odysseus is addressed by Penelope, but she ultimately sends him away. But as Eurycleia, Odysseus’ former nursemaid, bathes him and feels a scar behind his leg, she learns who he is. He asks her to keep quiet.
Telemachus returns to mortal danger after sailing to another port and encountering danger there; the suitors use dogs to pursue him. Telemachus is unable to stop talking, so Odysseus knocks him out and then murders the two suitors after running into him as they approach. In order to confuse the hounds’ scent, Odysseus, Telemachus, Eumaeus, and their companions escape behind a swimming pool. Despite the deteriorating political and economic conditions on Ithaca and Odysseus’ inability to bring home Ithacan warriors, Telemachus is not pleased to learn that Odysseus is his father and chose to accept the fact that he did not return for decades.
Penelope is forced to make a choice after Antinous finds her unraveling her weaving. The crew of Odysseus is informed that Penelope will make a decision the following day. The palace is where they go.
Penelope informs the suitors that she has the option of putting them to the test by having them shoot an arrow through the holes of several axed-heads just like Odysseus did using his ancient bow. They are all incapable of stringing it. When Odysseus offers to try, he strings the arrow and fires it through the axed heads. The suitors panic when he shoots them. Devoted servants shut the doors to keep people from escaping.
He ruthlessly engages the suitors in hand-to-hand combat after his arrows run out. Telemachus resists the urge to run away and supports his father in his battle. When Antinous gives up, Penelope, who is sick of male aggression and longing for peace, asks Telemachus to spare his life. To his mother’s horror, he kills him.
In order to discover himself and his fate, Telemachus is adamant about setting sail. Odysseus discovers that Penelope is using a bed he has never seen before; he climbs to a secret room and discovers their old bed, which she had hidden away when he departed for the War. Odysseus responds that he will share Penelope’s wealth of knowledge with him. According to her, they have a lot to forget before they can move on; they come to the conclusion that remembering what happened is necessary before forgetting. A picture of Telemachus’ ship crashing into the ocean is shown after the image of Odysseus’ blood being washed away in a basin.
* * *
[WAVES CRASHING]
[BIRD SQUAWKING]
[PIGLET SQUEALS]
[GOATS BLEATING]
[CHICKENS CLUCKING]
[DOG BARKS DISTANTLY]
Hey, Eumeas.
What?
They want more of those, more small ones.
If you eat all the young ones now, what’s going to be left for next year?
POLYBUS: We’ll be gone next year.
The queen will have chosen a new king.
You can starve on your own.
MAN 1: Oh, look who’s here.
MAN 2: Look, it’s the prince.
MAN 3: The master is here!
MAN 4: Our master!
MAN 5: Come and join us, prince!
Our prince.
Have you found your father?
Telemachus.
Give them what they want.
Boy, tell your mother that shroud she’s weaving will be for her son.
If she keeps us waiting much longer, I’ll wrap your body in it myself.
You still think she’d marry you?
[SIGHS]
What do you think she does at night?
[LAUGHTER]
She wants what every woman wants.
She would not shame herself.
MEN: Oh!
I’ll cut your throat, you little bastard.
ANTINOUS: Leave him!
Wait!
Why don’t you tell her to choose me?
I’ll get rid of them all.
Get the island working again.
I’ll treat you fairly.
You think you’re better than them?
Poor boy.
Don’t you know that if it wasn’t for me, you’d be dead long ago.
I might change my mind.
[BOWL CLANGING]
Why don’t you choose?
Why doesn’t she?
This island is dying.
Marry one of them.
Anyone! Then the rest will go.
Your mother will never marry another man.
She will never stain the honor of this island and the name of your father.
My father is dead!
We can’t live with those savages anymore.
Which one?
Which savage shall I give you for a father?
There must be one you prefer.
I will choose when I finish your grandfather’s shroud.
[TELEMACHUS SIGHS]
You’ve been weaving for months.
And what good will it do him?
[MAN GROANING]
PISANDER: Here to marry the queen?
ELATUS: I think there’s enough of us already.
No one would survive that weather.
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[GROWLING]
[GROANS AND MOANS]
EUMEAS: Leave him! Leave him!
[DOG BARKING]
Stay.
What about his face?
It will heal.
[GROANING]
[COUGHING]
[WOMAN LAUGHING]
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
Will you eat?
Where… Where am I?
You don’t know?
The island of Ithaca.
Take me. Help me.
Outside.
Eat this.
[PIGS SNORTING]
Eumeas.
Why take in a stranger?
Risk their anger?
Because they haven’t turned us into animals yet.
[PIG SQUEALING]
Market?
There’s no market anymore.
Anything with four legs goes to the palace.
Your king is greedy.
There is no king.
He sailed to Troy years ago.
Took the best men with him.
None of them came back.
Who do you serve now?
The Queen Penelope and her son.
No man at her side?
[EXHALES]
All year they’ve been turning up from miles around,
waiting for her to choose.
Has she?
She’s strong.
Keeps them waiting
for her husband to return.
We all have a place in the world
to uphold.
Eat that.
I want to take you back to the palace, Grandfather.
Palace?
Yes. Mother is there alone with those men.
The ones who scared you.
Stones.
They are…
so beautiful.
So should I?
Should I go and try to find my father?
Find if he’s dead.
I need to know.
I could sail to the mainland tomorrow.
The fishermen would take me.
Father?
You lost your father?
Hmm. Poor boy.
Hey! Pig man!
PISANDER: Where’s the girl?
I don’t know.
Where’s she hiding?
I don’t know.
She can’t have gone far.
[GRUNTS]
PISANDER: If it’s not the girl, it’s you.
[CHOKES]
I’ve come a long way. I’m not going back without.
PISANDER: I will not get the queen.
But I’ll get what I can.
I’ll take.
I’ll leave my scar on this island.
PHILETIUS: So they sailed, princes and kings
from the smallest islands to the greatest cities
to honor the promise made.
Ten long years the heroes fought
and covered their names in glory.
Ten long years but neither side could claim victory.
Then out of the forests of Asia,
by the mighty walls of Troy,
Odysseus built the great horse.
They say it was just a tower to get them over the wall.
A tower? Where did you hear that?
MAN: People love stories.
We’d burned all the forests to keep the winters away.
Epeius built it with the wood from the ships of our dead.
You were there?
You saw Troy burn?
Yes.
PHILETIUS: Our King Odysseus was there.
The smartest of all the heroes.
It’s because of him we won.
Isn’t that true?
Tell them.
Heroes.
Odysseus was…
He thought.
A trick.
Something to get the army through the gates.
Some scheme.
Get in.
Shut the gates behind us.
Locked in with them.
Butcher them in the streets.
How tall was he?
Not tall.
Go on.
He got himself up as a beggar.
Rags.
Crawled into the city at night.
Counted the soldiers. Listened to the rumors.
Saw the pain.
The market was empty.
People…
People wanted food, clothes…
peace.
The whole city wanted.
The stones wanted.
PHILETIUS: But the treasures…
And then on the second day he saw Helen.
The beggars were supposed to keep in line.
But he stepped out.
Held out his hand.
She looked straight at him.
Put a coin in his hand.
Her escort were mounted.
And that’s when he thought of it.
The wooden horse.
A great wooden horse.
They’ll open the gates and drag it inside.
And in the morning, it will vomit soldiers.
The city will be dead.
We took our revenge
for all the years away from home.
For all our dead.
The cold. The hunger.
PHILETIUS: And Troy was ours.
But the city could never be won,
only destroyed.
We burned it to the ground and then we
drowned the flames in blood.
They say that every war will be like it,
till time runs out.
The dead from Troy,
their ghosts will come and watch.
And my king?
PHILETIUS: Sailors say he is near.
HIPPOTAS: Where?
If he isn’t dead, why doesn’t he come back and take his own?
Doesn’t he care what happens to his people?
He’s turned this island into a grave.
He brought glory to our land.
[CHUCKLES] Glory?
You think that’s what feeds our widows?
Wouldn’t they rather their men back?
Ask my mother.
Well, have faith.
He will return and slaughter those bastards
and the island will live again.
Even if he swum all the way from Troy,
he would have been back years ago.
No.
He is at the bottom of the sea.
And maybe it’s better for him that way.
Is the father still alive?
The old king?
Yes.
But mad with grief.
And the boy?
EUMEAS: He’s not a boy. He’s a man now.
Little runt. Coward.
EUMEAS: Cowards run.
What can he do on his own?
Would you help him?
That’s not my job.
Would he die for me?
What does he do?
Hide behind his mother’s skirts?
What are you doing here?
Where have you been?
Where have you been?
Why do you ask?
Are you quarrelling again?
Look at her.
She’s afraid. Ashamed.
You know what they say about you.
Whore.
[GOAT BLEATING]
Where is my son?
Your son?
Why?
Have you lost him?
Where is he?
Telemachus is a grown man.
If he is not in his bed,
perhaps he has found comfort elsewhere.
We don’t all like to sleep alone.
Please leave.
Don’t you see?
The more you keep him under your skirts,
the more he hates you.
If I let him out of my sight, they’ll kill him.
If you had chosen, he would be safe.
You will find him for me.
Your son has deserted you.
Your husband is dead.
You are alone. You need me.
You will find him and bring him back to me.
Yes…
my queen.
We agreed you’d keep watch on the boy.
He must have gone to the mainland for news.
The grandfather will know.
He might come back with help.
He might not come back at all.
[CHUCKLES]
These are dangerous waters this time of year.
Killing the son won’t win you the mother.
Careful now.
There was no talk of killing here.
[INSECTS TRILLING]
[GRUNTS]
Get away!
[WOMAN GROANS]
Where’s the Prince gone?
No!
Is he coming back?
No.
The old one asks to see you.
You’ve found my son?
The old king is dead.
I’m leaving.
All the decent men are going.
Only the scoundrels will be left.
And they’re just here for your wealth.
How did he die?
Old men die.
You need protection,
just as your son needs a father.
I’m not young like some of the others.
I’m not famous like your husband.
If he were alive, I would respect him…
just as I respect his widow.
I am Odysseus’s wife.
Odysseus is dead.
Not to me.
[THUNDER RUMBLING]
There’ll be a funeral at dawn.
The old king.
He waited for his son to return.
Then he gave up hope.
And now he’s dead.
Will the family bury him?
The queen will bury him alone.
The son is gone.
That’s what our lives have become.
When I die, they won’t even bury me.
They’ll leave me for the dogs.
Now you can choose.
POLYBUS: If you don’t choose,
you’ll be carried here in a year.
I will choose soon.
PISANDER: When?
POLYBUS: When? LEODES: When?
Now!
When I’ve finished the cloth.
She’s lying again.
She said that she was weaving his shroud.
It’s too late. He’s dead.
The shroud will be my wedding cloak.
Let me mourn the old king in peace.
Then I will choose.
There will be no more waiting.
Take me to the palace.
They won’t let you in.
They’ll think you’re another one hoping to marry her.
Even the tramps are turning up now.
Take me.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[LAUGHTER]
The master’s hunting dog.
Stays there, watching for him.
All these years.
Argos.
[ARGOS WHIMPERING]
[WHIMPERS]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[DOG BARKING]
A soldier could kill them now.
[LAUGHING]
They wouldn’t even know.
LEOCRITUS: Stick with me. Things will change.
Spare some food for a soldier who fought at Troy?
Amazing. Another veteran.
A tramp!
[LAUGHTER]
Throw him out.
CTESIPPUS: Everyone fought at Troy!
MAN: Yes! Everyone.
Some of them before they were born. Huh.
Here, old soldier.
Let him be! Here, old man.
MAN 2: Enough! Stop it!
PISANDER: Talk to the queen. Tell her you knew her husband.
ELATUS: She’ll screw you harder than the Trojans did.
PISANDER: Hey, beggar. Come here.
See him?
That’s Antinous.
He’s desperate to get the queen.
He doesn’t even want her wealth. He wants her.
Go and annoy him. He’ll pay you to go away.
[ELATUS CHUCKLES]
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION]
Something for an old soldier?
Take your rags out with the other beggars.
You sit at another man’s table,
eat another man’s food,
refuse a poor man a scrap of meat.
Someone rid us of this beggar.
[DOG BARKING]
Here. I’ll show you the way out.
EURYMACHUS: Wait, wait.
We could do with some entertainment.
Can he fight?
Thank you. I’ll go.
Don’t go.
You say you were at Troy.
Show us how to fight.
Some of them need a lesson.
MAN: Come on then.
Let’s see him fight.
MAN 2: Sit on him!
[LAUGHTER]
MAN 3: Go on then.
Go on.
MAN 4: Come on!
EURYMACHUS: Come on.
[CHEERING]
[CROWD EXCLAIMS]
Is that enough?
[ALL CHEERING]
Get up!
[DOOR OPENS]
[CROWD CHEERING]
What is that noise?
Fighting. A stranger this time.
He might know of Telemachus.
No. He’s a tramp.
Don’t go there.
He’s just another one who says he was at Troy.
[CROWD CHEERING]
Stop this. They’ve had their fun.
[CROWD LAUGHING]
MAN: Hit him!
[GROANS]
[INDISTINCT SHOUTING]
Stop it!
[GROANS]
[CROWD GASP]
[DOG BARKING]
Someone clean this up.
You fight well for a beggar.
If you’re looking for someone to serve,
I’m always looking for slaves.
[MAN LAUGHING]
EUMEAS: You should be pleased.
He won’t need killing again.
Killing a man to amuse thugs?
EUMEAS: He had his chances. You can’t be blamed.
The war, you should forget it.
It was years ago.
A long way off.
It’s everywhere.
It’s everything we see and touch.
A cup, the war, a table.
The war. Everything.
Waiting for me to
make it happen again.
What are you going to tell the queen?
Don’t lie to her.
She’s suffered enough.
[WIND BLOWING]
[GRUNTS]
Look at him.
That’s what happens to the great warriors.
Get out! Out with the other beggars.
You can’t stay here.
PENELOPE: Leave him.
I want to talk to him.
Come nearer the light.
Closer.
Let me see you.
My nurse tells me you were at Troy. Is it true?
Yes.
You fought with my husband?
Yes.
Then you remember him well.
It was a long time ago.
Where have you been
since you left Troy?
Traveling. Drifting.
Did you hear of my husband in your travels?
He must be dead.
The man who left would never have stayed away.
From his son.
His wife.
His people.
Perhaps he’s afraid.
Why should he be?
Perhaps…
Perhaps he is lost.
Lost?
Lost?
How can men find a war but not find their way home?
For some, war becomes home.
Why do men go to war?
Why do they burn other people’s houses?
Why do they rape?
Why do they murder women and children?
Aren’t they happy with their own family?
Did my husband rape?
Did he murder women and children?
This land is ruined.
I sacrificed it.
For him.
My son hates me.
He wants me to marry.
Should I marry? Tell me?
Put an end to it?
Tell me.
Has all this waiting been for nothing?
[CLAPS]
[DOOR OPENS]
Tend to this man
then send him away.
[GRUNTING]
[SOBBING]
Are you scared of an old nurse?
I washed men when they were little…
and when they brought them in dead.
I can wash a tramp.
That scar…
I washed it when it was made.
You came in from the hunt.
Shh.
My boy.
My boy, my boy, you’re back!
No.
My king.
No. No.
I must tell her.
I must tell her!
No!
Ow!
[MUFFLED SCREAMING]
Not a word. Do you swear?
Swear.
Not a word.
Yes.
I understand.
We mustn’t tell her. She’s not strong like us.
My boy is back.
Now…
you can kill them all.
Father.
We didn’t know. The dead are the lucky ones.
You survive…
but there’s nothing left inside.
All those I left behind.
I can’t even see their faces.
I will never be forgiven.
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
[GOATS BLEATING]
A boat!
A boat!
The prince is back!
MAN 1: What?
MAN 2: The prince?
MAN 3: The prince is back?
A gang of them was waiting for us at the northern point.
But our fishermen fooled them, took the southern route,
against the wind and left them there,
like stranded fish gasping on the rocks.
Don’t you understand?
They are even more dangerous now.
You must hide.
What about you?
They won’t hurt me. They need me alive…
at least until I choose.
And I will not…
You must forget him.
Think of yourself.
A faithful wife.
Or a deceitful whore.
I have no other choice. I cannot live another life.
I will send them away.
And I will make this island our home again.
Mother, he won’t return.
I met a sailor who’d seen him on his travels.
He’s been living on an island.
With a woman.
He’s been there for years.
I’m sorry, Mother.
I didn’t want to tell you.
I’m sorry.
Go to Eumeas.
And what will you do?
[DOOR OPENS]
[SCOFFS]
I thought you were married to your dead husband.
It seems you are married to your son.
Go.
If I can’t be his father, that’s your fault.
But I will be your husband.
And you’ll love me.
You will love again.
If you choose someone else, I’ll kill him.
EUMEAS: Leaving us?
Running away?
Do you think I’m a fool?
I know who you are.
All these years we’ve waited…
And you run away?
I’m a slave.
If I were free, I’d fight for what was mine.
I’d fight for my people.
What will the people say
when they see I have returned alone?
That I led all their men to their deaths?
They will hate you for it.
So die to protect them.
Your war isn’t at Troy now.
It’s here.
My prince.
They said you’d run away. But you’re back, safe.
TELEMACHUS: Until they come after me again.
I’ll get the others.
Any wise counsel from the queen?
That woman is making a fool of you. And of us all.
And now the son, too.
I have a proposal for you.
A hunting party.
EURYMACHUS: If you don’t talk,
[GRUNTS] your families will starve.
They might as well die with you!
Tell us where!
[MUFFLED SCREAMING]
Where did the prince go?
LEODES: Where?
Where is he?
Tell me where he is!
[DOGS BARKING]
Young man. Hiding. Where?
ANTINOUS: Pisander!
[BOTH GRUNT]
PISANDER: Come on.
So who are you?
Nobody.
Did you tell my mother you were at Troy?
If you were there, you saw my father.
You must have.
What was he like?
A soldier.
Like any other.
Were you one of his men?
Did you leave with him when it was over?
Deserted, didn’t you?
Sold your weapons for a whore.
Isn’t that what my father did?
[DOG BARKING IN DISTANCE]
Run.
What?
Run! Hide yourself.
Don’t speak to me like that.
[BOTH GRUNTING]
Stop!
Stay down!
[DOG BARKING IN DISTANCE]
[ALL GRUNTING]
[STABS]
What happened?
Who are you?
Your father.
EUMEAS: You must run!
[YELLS] No!
Telemachus! Telemachus!
Telemachus!
[DOG BARKING]
[TELEMACHUS YELLING]
TELEMACHUS: Let me go!
You’ll both be killed! Telemachus!
They’re coming to kill you!
EUMEAS: Go! Get to the water!
Come on!
Go.
I’ll hide the bodies. Keep them off track.
Where is he?
Eumeas?
He’s in the hills with the boars.
Where is the boy?
I haven’t seen him. I swear.
[HIPPOTAS GASPS]
[DOGS BARKING]
Go on.
Yes. Come on!
[GRUNTS]
Come on.
[DOGS BARKING]
Good boy. Good boy.
LEODES: They lost it. They could be anywhere.
PISANDER: Oh, fucking place.
LEODES: Let’s get back.
I’m hungry. Come on.
Come on. Good boy.
ELATUS: We should have killed him long ago.
A hunting party.
[CLACKING]
Time to start talking.
He’s not my father.
Odysseus would have chased that scum
out of the palace by now.
Aren’t you your father’s steward when he’s away?
Look at this island.
A wasteland.
Gangs of thugs terrifying the people.
The barns are empty.
Houses broken into at night.
The old king left to die alone.
Wouldn’t you be ashamed to look your father
in the face if he came back?
I know the people of this island by name.
I know how they’ve suffered without their king.
And what happened to his men?
He would have died rather than return alone.
You know who I am.
Tell him.
I know who you were.
[DOGS BARKING IN DISTANCE]
Close the gate.
Undoing at night what you weave in the day.
You thought you were keeping your husband alive with this?
Weaving stories.
How long?
I’ll give you the time. Not a day more.
Then you’ll marry me.
I won’t tell the others.
They won’t be so understanding.
And my son?
Your son?
Why should I care about your son?
I wish I’d never met you.
I want to leave this island, but I can’t.
I’ll die here one way or another.
[WINGS FLUTTERING]
[PANTING]
What happened?
The queen has decided.
She’s going to choose one of them today.
ODYSSEUS: Wait.
Wait!
It’s too late to come back.
You can only hurt us. Go back to your other woman.
If you go to the palace now, they’ll kill you.
My mother is going to marry.
Today!
One of those pigs.
And what will you do about that?
Nothing.
She’s wasted her life waiting for you.
I hope they kill you.
[METAL HAMMERING]
POLYBUS: What are they for?
ANTINOUS: I don’t know.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATION]
MAN: Look who’s here.
Uh…
Not now.
Later.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
Your waiting is over.
It has been difficult to choose
from men of such diverse qualities.
Hey, you. Throw him out.
He’s bad luck.
MAN 1: It’s that beggar again. MAN 2: Throw him out.
MAN 3: Who let him back in?
MAN 4: Throw him out. MAN 5: Out!
MAN 6: Throw him out.
Leave him!
He’s my guest.
In my house.
[LAUGHTER]
MAN: In your house?
PENELOPE: In fact,
I cannot choose.
The choice will be in your hands.
This bow
was a childhood gift to my husband.
He was able to make an arrow fly through 12 axes
without touching any one of them.
The one amongst you who can string the bow
and shoot the arrow through the axes,
that man will be my husband
and king of Ithaca.
MAN 1: But it’s impossible! MAN 2: Enough!
Circus tricks!
Why marry someone because he can do that?
What if nobody can do it?
PENELOPE: Odysseus could.
Would my new husband choose to be a lesser man?
AGELAUS: I’ll try.
[LAUGHTER]
Go on.
[LAUGHTER]
Come on! Come on!
Come on!
[MEN EXCLAIMING]
You’re stringing it the wrong way.
MAN 1: Go on!
[STRAINING]
MAN 2: A bit more.
MAN 3: He can’t do it.
MAN 4: Let’s see it.
[STRAINING]
Come on!
[YELLS]
Come on!
Let’s see it.
Come on!
[GRUNTS]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
What are you waiting for, Antinous?
Too scared to try?
[BOW THUDS]
This is another trick.
She planned it this way.
We will not be her fools anymore.
MEN: Yes!
ANTINOUS: That bow hasn’t been used for years.
Even Odysseus couldn’t bend it.
Yes!
It can’t be done!
MAN: That’s right!
Shame on you!
Lies!
Tricks!
Lies!
MAN 2: We won’t be her fools anymore.
MAN 3: That’s right. MAN 4: It’s impossible!
[INDISTINCT SHOUTING]
MAN 5: Lying bitch!
I will do it then!
[LAUGHTER]
He wants to fuck his mother!
[LAUGHTER]
EURYMACHUS: I want to see him fuck his mother!
MAN: All right! Give it a go then!
MAN 2: Go on then! MAN 3: Give him the bow.
ANTINOUS: Enough of this farce.
We’ve wasted too much time.
The men will choose.
MAN 4: Yes!
Right.
MAN 5: Yeah. Forget the bow!
ODYSSEUS: If the gentlemen are finished,
I thought I might try.
It’s not every day you get the chance
to try the bow of Odysseus.
My queen.
Can the bow make a man of a beggar?
Get back to your place.
What does the queen think?
Give the man the bow.
[INDISTINCT MURMURING]
Give your father the bow.
[SNIFFS]
Look at the old soldier.
Is this what you wanted?
ELATUS: Well done, old soldier.
Now leave, before you come to regret your skill.
Yes, take your luck elsewhere.
Old man, put down the bow.
[MEN GASPING]
LEODES: He’s gone mad.
Rush him!
Go! Now!
[INDISTINCT SHOUTING]
[GASPS]
TELEMACHUS: Go! Go!
MAN: Get down!
You! Out!
Out!
Go! Shut the door!
ARISTRATOS: We have to rush him together!
[GRUNTS]
[CRYING]
He’s mad. He thinks he can kill us all.
He’ll pick us off one by one.
POLYBUS: Stranger…
Lower your bow.
If you are Odysseus,
no-one can blame you for your anger.
We have been reckless in your home and land.
But one man drove us.
Antinous!
Yes! Yes! It was him!
It was all his fault.
EURYNOMOUS: He wanted to kill Telemachus.
EURYDAMUS: It was him! Not us!
It was him!
Odysseus, you know I’ve been…
LEODES: He’s out of arrows.
Father!
[YELLING]
[SOBBING] Kill me now.
Please.
[STABS]
[DOOR OPENS]
ANTINOUS: My queen.
Is this the love you wanted?
If she had been mine, I never would have left her.
It could have been so different.
[EXHALES]
PENELOPE: No!
Don’t.
[YELLS]
No!
[BODY THUDS]
Why the tears?
Your husband is back.
Your son is saved.
That is not my son.
A slaughterhouse.
After all these years, holding on to peace.
That was no peace.
There was no other way.
Queen.
Your son wishes to speak with you.
Telemachus, don’t.
Mother…
I need to go.
Go to her.
PENELOPE: You have lost us our son.
When he finds out who he is, he will return.
So wise.
How can you bear to see him go?
So much blood.
Yes.
So many years.
Why?
Would you still love
the man I had become?
I couldn’t return.
Forgive me.
Forgive me.
This is not our bed.
[YELLS]
When did you seal it?
When you left me.
There is so much I do not know.
You do not want to know.
I need to understand.
You cannot understand.
I cannot understand.
We will.
Your past will be my past.
And mine, yours.
Better to forget.
We will remember.
And we will forget together.
And then we’ll live.
And we’ll grow old.
Friends, again.
Together.
