On 17 July, Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey reached cinemas. It made 264 million dollars in its first weekend — but for a Greek audience there is a strange sensation: you are watching Homer in landscapes that are not Greek.
The Odyssey is the nostos, the journey home, ten years after the fall. And the film begins where the war ends, with a prologue at Troy, before Odysseus takes the road back.
What most people do not know is that this prologue was in fact filmed in Morocco. And unlike most film landscapes, you can actually go and stand there.
Filming lasted just 91 days in total, across seven different countries. Among them, the Peloponnese in Greece, Sicily in Italy, Iceland and Scotland.
In Morocco the crew arrived in February and worked at four locations — three of them easy to visit.
And for everything else Morocco has to offer, take a look at our complete guide.
George Gialamas Founder & Managing Director, Genius Travel
Where exactly it was filmed
Filming lasted just 91 days in total, across seven different countries. Among them, the Peloponnese in Greece, Sicily in Italy, Iceland and Scotland.
In Morocco the crew arrived in February and worked at four locations — three of them easy to visit.
- Aït Ben Haddou. The imposing fortified clay village, a UNESCO monument since 1987, became the Troy the viewer sees in the film’s prologue — the city that falls before Odysseus’ journey begins.
- Ouarzazate and the Atlas Studios. The backlots of the largest film complex in the world by area, operating since 1983 — another must-see when you visit Morocco.
- Essaouira. Scenes on the Atlantic coast, before the crew moved south.
The honest warning
You will read articles implying that you can go and see the film’s actual sets. You cannot. For the shoot at Aït Ben Haddou, some sixty structures were added — a temple, gates, walls — across ten thousand square metres. All of them were temporary and have been dismantled. What you will see, though, is the real Aït Ben Haddou: — an 11th-century village of clay and straw, built into a hillside above the river, on the old caravan road between the Sahara and Marrakech. And honestly, it is more impressive than any set. The reason Nolan chose it was not that he could build there. It was that he did not need to.Why Morocco and not CGI
Nolan is famous for his obsession with shooting real places, and Morocco gave him something no studio can: architecture that already looks ancient, desert light, and thousands of local extras. He is not the first. The same village and the same studios hosted Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator, Game of Thrones, Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones. Morocco has played Egypt, Jerusalem, Rome, Mars. Now Troy as well.How to get there
Aït Ben Haddou and Ouarzazate lie south of Marrakech, with the Atlas in between. The route crosses the Tizi n’Tichka pass at 2,260 metres, which is worth the journey in itself. But it is not a day trip. Promoting it as a day excursion is a mistake — it means ten hours in a car for a real visit of two. The better answer is a longer journey like the Kingdom of Contrasts by Genius Travel, which breaks the long route with an overnight stay in Ouarzazate. That gives you time to climb Aït Ben Haddouand to visit the Atlas Studios. film locations at ease, in a complete premium 8-day experience from Athens, from Thessaloniki or Heraklion. If you have fewer days, on the six-day programme you can visit Essaouira, where the film’s spellbinding Atlantic scenes were shot.
And for everything else Morocco has to offer, take a look at our complete guide.
And a Greek footnote
The film also carries frames of our own Peloponnese. There is something worth pausing on: the epic was written here, travelled the world for two and a half millennia, and to become image again it needed a village of clay at the edge of the Sahara. It is, in its own way, one more nostos.George Gialamas Founder & Managing Director, Genius Travel
