Few stories have travelled as far as Homer's Odyssey. More than two millennia after it was composed, Odysseus is once again crossing the Mediterranean. This time on cinema screens in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. The spectacular new adaptation has revived interest not only in Homer's hero, but also in the real landscapes, islands and coastlines that have become associated with his legendary journey.
For Malta, this is a familiar story. The islands have long occupied a curious space between Homeric myth and film history, with Gozo carrying one of the Mediterranean's most enduring claims to be the mythical island of Ogygia.
The Odyssey follows Odysseus after the Trojan War as he attempts to return to Ithaca. What should have been a relatively straightforward journey becomes a decade-long voyage through a world of monsters, gods and strange islands. He encounters the Lotus-Eaters, blinds the Cyclops Polyphemus, survives the winds of Aeolus, confronts the giant Laestrygonians and encounters the enchantress Circe. Later come the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, before disaster leaves Odysseus shipwrecked and alone.
It is at this point that Gozo enters the story.
According to Homer, Odysseus washes ashore on Ogygia, the secluded island of the nymph Calypso. She falls in love with him and keeps him on the island for seven years, offering him immortality if he will remain with her. Eventually, the gods intervene and Odysseus is allowed to continue his journey home to his wife, Penelope.
Gozo has traditionally been identified with this mysterious Ogygia. Calypso's Cave, above the red sands of Ramla Bay near Xagħra, is said to be the very cave described by Homer. The theory has never been proven as the geographical locations in the Odyssey remain the subject of considerable debate, but Gozo's position at the centre of the Mediterranean and its dramatic coastline have made the identification particularly attractive.
The renewed fascination with the Odyssey is no longer confined to books and classrooms. Nolan's film has transformed the epic into a global cinematic travel map. Shot over an extraordinarily ambitious international production, it uses landscapes in Greece, Italy, Scotland, Iceland and Morocco to represent different stages of Odysseus's journey. Sicily's Favignana stands in for Ithaca, Greece provides locations associated with the Cyclops, Scotland represents the world of Circe, Iceland supplies the otherworldly landscapes of the Underworld, while Morocco provides the setting for Troy.
Malta was also among the countries involved in the production, but not as a location depicting the island of Ogygia or Calypso's cave. Most of the scenes that were shot in Malta reportedly consist of underwater scenes and ocean battle sequences filmed at the Mediterranean Film Studios in the village of Kalkara, which is home to some of the largest water tanks in the world. To represent Calypso's isolated island, Nolan relied on the white dunes of Dakhla in the Western Sahara, rather than Gozo. If Nolan had chosen the alleged real location of Ogygia, filming would probably not have taken place at the popular sight of Calypso's cave on the western side of Ramla Bay itself, as it has been closed for safety reasons for more than a decade, with stabilisation works still awaited. An alternative would have been the still accessible Mixta Cave on the eastern side of Ramla Bay, which offers a spectacular view and is very commonly confused with Calypso's cave.
Despite not being prominently featured as a film location for The Odyssey, Malta hardly needs to borrow Nolan's mythology. It already has its own cinematic relationship with Homer's world. Troy (2004) famously transformed Fort Ricasoli into the city of Troy, while other scenes were filmed around Mellieħa and elsewhere in the Maltese islands. The 2003 television miniseries Helen of Troy was shot entirely in Malta, and the 1997 television adaptation of The Odyssey also used Malta as a filming location.
More recently, Malta has been brought directly into the renewed Odyssey conversation by Richard E. Grant's A Very Modern Odyssey. The four-part Channel 4 travelogue begins in Malta before taking Grant to Gozo, where he visits the site associated with Calypso, including Ramla Bay, and reflects on the island's extraordinary mixture of history, landscape and mythology.
This convergence of myth and cinema comes at an interesting moment for Maltese tourism. In 2025, Malta and Gozo welcomed around four million tourists, whose expenditure exceeded €3.9 billion. Tourist accommodation recorded more than 25.4 million guest nights, which is an increase of around 11% and the largest increase in the EU. The momentum has continued into 2026 with inbound tourists in the first six months of the year increasing by 18.1%. while expenditure reached €1,795.6 million, which is 14.8 per cent more than in the same period in 2025. Yet expenditure per capita fell from €866 to €842, underlining the challenge facing Malta: the objective is no longer simply to attract more visitors, but to encourage higher-value, year-round and sustainable tourism.
That ambition is reflected in Malta's tourism strategy. New Tourism Accommodation Regulations introduced in April 2026 aim to raise standards, encourage more responsible and sustainable practices and reinforce Malta's positioning as a premium destination built around quality, heritage and authentic experiences. The Malta Tourism Authority is also placing greater emphasis on value-added events and visitor experiences that celebrate the distinct culture and heritage of Malta and Gozo, particularly during the traditionally quieter months.
It is here that the renewed fascination with Homer's Odyssey and the growing phenomenon of film tourism could offer an interesting opportunity. Nolan's The Odyssey demonstrates how a fictional journey can turn real landscapes into destinations: Favignana, used as Ithaca in the film, is already preparing to capitalise on the attention.
For Malta, the opportunity is somewhat different. Visitors do not need to believe that Gozo really was Homer's Ogygia. They can come for the possibility, the story and the landscape, and then discover that the islands have their own extraordinary cinematic history waiting to be explored. After all, perhaps that is the enduring power of the Odyssey. Its geography has never needed to be entirely real to make people want to follow the journey.
Dr Lina Klesper is a International Legal Assistant at PKF Malta