The Nine Muses

Synopsis

Twenty years after his departure to the Trojan War, Odysseus still has not returned home. So his son, Telemachus sets off an epic journey in search of his lost father. So begins Homer's epic poem, The Odyssey - the narrative reference point for John Akomfrah's unusual and genre defying story about chance, fate and redemption.
 
Structured as an allegorical fable and loosely inspired by existential science fiction, The Nine Muses is a stylised, unusual and idiosyncratic retelling of the history of mass migration to post-war Britain through the suggestive lens of the Homeric epic.
 
Divided into nine overlapping musical chapters and mixing a vast array of archival material, The Nine Muses is a modern recasting of Homer's epic as a 'song cycle' about journeys, migration, memory and the power of elegy.

Details

Year

2010

Type of film

Features

Running Time

92 mins

Director

John Akomfrah

Producer

Lina Gopaul, David Lawson

Editor

Miikka Leskinen

Screenwriter

John Akomfrah

Director of Photography

Dewald Aukema

Music

Trevor Mathison

Principal Cast

John Akomfrah, David Lawson, Trevor Mathison, John Barrymore (V.O.), Richard Burton (V.O.), Michael Sheen (V.O.), Heathcote Williams (V.O.)

Genre

Production status

Complete

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Last updated 4th February 2011