Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche explain what sets their version of The Odyssey apart

But before then, fans might be interested to hear that there is another, rather different, version of the story currently playing in cinemas.

The Return, which is directed by UK-based Italian filmmaker Uberto Pasolini, is a largely sombre affair focusing entirely on the final sections of Homer's text, following Odysseus as he arrives back on his home island of Ithaca after two decades away at war.

You won't find any sirens or cylopses – or indeed any mythological elements – in this version of the text, but what you will find are two impeccable performances from a fine pair of actors in Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus and Juliette Binoche as Penelope, reuniting almost 30 years after their acclaimed collaboration on Best Picture winner The English Patient in 1996.

You'll also find plenty of musing on fascinating themes such as wrestling with the aftermath of war and reuniting a family that has been kept apart for many years, topics which Pasolini says he considers the most "attractive" elements of Homer's epic, more so than any supernatural aspects.

"I think that as you age and you're lucky enough to become a father and a husband or a wife or a mother, the things that are more attractive – the things that talk to you mostly – about Homer's work, The Odyssey in particular, are the relationships between family members," the director explains during an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com.

"In particular, here we're dealing with a family wrenched apart by war that is trying, in its different ways, to come together after the horror of war. And as a grown-up, this seems to really speak across the ages in a very universal, very powerful way, more than what we like when we are young – the fantasy elements like the cyclops or the adventures."

Fiennes was himself very young when he was first introduced to The Odyssey, and explains that he can still remember a specific children's volume called Greek Myths and Heroes that he liked having read to him by his mother as a young child.

Interestingly, many years – though not quite as many – have also passed since he was first approached by Pasolini about making this film – with the original intention having been that the actor would direct as well as star.

"We went together on a trip to possible locations," Fiennes recalls. "We went to Ithaca, we went to the coast of Turkey, and we went to Majorca just to look at the sort of coastline that we would explore. It was a good, very bonding trip.

"But I was aware that Uberto was steeped in not only The Odyssey, but in his film version of The Odyssey. And it became very clear that he knew the film he wanted to make – like a director knows," he adds.

"The proposition at the time was that I would direct and play Odysseus. Having done that a few times, especially with Coriolanus, it's really, excuse my French, it's a head f**k directing yourself in a big role."

And so at that time, Fiennes realised that he couldn't take on the project. But Pasolini persisted, and eventually in 2021 he got in touch again, asking if Fiennes was up for making the film now – this time as a star but not director.

"I kept saying, 'I'm too old,'" Fiennes smiles. "And he said 'No, you are the right age now!' And then we both agreed that who is Penelope? Juliette Binoche is Penelope!"

For Binoche – who loved both the script and the prospect of working with Fiennes again – it was an easy yes.

"When I met with Uberto, I watched his films and really loved them, and we met, and I felt like, 'Oh, I want to be part of this adventure,'" she says.

"It's very special because, of course, it's an epic story with archetypes, but having a different point of view that Uberto was offering, as far as Penelope is concerned – the fact she's such a strong woman, she is faithful and is patient, but also has all the doubts and desires, and all this battle inside of her.

"I was very happy that he had another view of this ancient figure. Penelope is often seen as this perfect woman. But, she is just struggling, and a hero, even though she's not going outside of Ithaca, but an inside hero trying to keep up with her faith."

Given Fiennes and Binoche's previous high-profile films together – not only in the aforementioned The English Patient but also in Peter Kosminsky's 1992 adaptation of Wuthering Heights – you might assume that the idea of putting them on screen together again was part of the appeal for Pasolini.

But the director says this wasn't really something that crossed his mind when he was first casting them, even if it did end up bearing fruit later down the line.

"They are two absolutely brilliant actors, and it so happened that they had worked together," he explains. "And having worked together, they were happier still to work together again. But I would be delighted to work with them separately at any other moment in the future.

"But what was fascinating to me and the crew is that when we first shot the first scene that they shot on the set together, there was an expectation," he continues. "There was a fever on the set of having Ralph and Juliette back on the set together, there was an atmosphere that was very, very special.

"And I think the border between Odysseus and Ralph and Penelope and Juliette sort of went away a little bit in this dark room lit by the fire, and you didn't know who was who, and whether Penelope was Penelope, or actually was Juliette, and whether Ralph was really Ralph or Odysseus.

"The crew was sort of speechless and completely taken. It was a great, great memorable moment for me in my life, moment of film making... just magical!"

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Aside from this reunion, one of the most immediately notable aspects of the film is just how physical a role it is for Fiennes – who went through a pretty intensive process to get himself into shape for the part.

And although, as a serious thespian, it was the dramatic meat of the project that mattered most to him, he admits that getting to play in the swords and sandals genre was also very appealing.

"I wanted to do an action film, to be a boy, fighting," he says, wielding an imaginary sword as he speaks. "There's a bit of me that wants to do that, it has to be said.

"But, I mean, it's a hot world, it's a Mediterranean world. He's a soldier, he's a warrior, he's a sailor. He's hasn't eaten very much when we see him. So I think the body had to show that in a way that I wanted to believe that when I looked at myself.

"I love the scene, I mean, it's a kind of a Western-ly moment, when he comes with a pitchfork to the two suitors in the middle of the film, and he takes them down in a sort of Kurosawa-esque moment.

"And of course, if you're boys, you play that on the playground when you're eight or nine. And I'm afraid the horrors of war are true, but men have this... I don't know of any actor, male actor, who wouldn't mostly enjoy a bit of that."

He continues: "But crucially, it has to be real. I mean, I think it was in the script, 'Am I going to kill again?' It's like he's been eviscerated by relentless killing and so seriously, it was about if you've been through that, you've seen men go down, you've seen horrors, and you've probably been part of perpetrating horrors in the fury and the anger.

"The moment I kill that suitor, it made me go to the place of, what is it when you actually have to stick a blade into someone? You kind of leave your boyhood fantasy and you go into what it really is. And that was a very big theme of the script.

"I love the way in the script, he feels he's been drawn back into what is the final scene of the killing of the suitors, but it's sort of with this deep reluctance, or deep kind of... like, I've thought I've left this thing behind and I can't leave it behind. I haven't left it behind."

The Return is now showing in UK cinemas.

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