Travis Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton) emerges from the desert and is reunited with the son he had left behind four years earlier. The boy has been in the care of Travis’s brother (Dean Stockwell) since his disappearance and the subsequent abandonment of the boy by mother Jane (Nastassja Kinski). Travis’s attempts to reunite his family after a prolonged absence force him to face the consequences of his actions. Although the film is largely indebted to the mythology of the Western, Travis’s quest for home and family, while rooted firmly in the contemporary era, also places him in the Odyssean tradition.

Notes by Kevin Coyne.

Screening as part of the IFI’s Odysseys season throughout July.

Tickets for 70mm screenings of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey on sale now!