Christopher Nolan... The director whose requests are never denied.

Today, director Christopher Nolan returns to giant IMAX screens with a new film titled "Odyssey," his first since winning 7 Oscars three years ago for his previous film, "Oppenheimer." Hollywood is not just releasing his new film; some theaters are also screening five of his previous works in a showcase aimed at boosting the director's popularity on one hand, and reminding audiences of his most prominent works on the other.

The films being screened in parallel are "Insomnia" (2002), "The Dark Knight" (2008), "Inception" (2010), "Interstellar" (2014), and "Dunkirk" (2017).

Matt Damon and Zendaya in a shot from "Odyssey" (Universal).

The Epic Saga

"Odyssey" is the first film in Nolan’s career to belong to the genre of ancient historical warfare. It is based on the epic "Odyssey" composed by the Greek poet Homer, which consists of 24 books (or cantos), and is the author of the other famous epic, "The Iliad," along with other works that did not receive the same level of attention. The mystery is not limited to the time and place of the composition of these two epics; it also surrounds the life of Homer himself.

Nolan’s film does not delve into Homer’s life, nor does it cover all the events of the "Odyssey" epic. Instead, it presents the journey of Odysseus (Matt Damon) on his return from Troy 10 years after its fall, along with the pivotal characters accompanying him, such as his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway), his son Telemachus (Tom Holland), and the narrator of his memoirs Antinous (Robert Pattinson), in addition to other characters, including Athena (Zendaya), Calypso (Charlize Theron), and Helen of Troy (Lupita Nyong'o).

The subject itself is vast, but its events, characters, and wars are even more expansive and complex. Anyone familiar with Nolan knows he does not present a film of lesser scale or ambition than the material it is based on, which is reflected in the production's budget of $250 million, covered by Universal Pictures, alongside a massive promotional campaign that began months ago and is still ongoing.

From Nolan’s film "The Dark Knight" (Warner).

Technical Details

Ambition and uniqueness are the hallmarks of this director's career, encapsulating his passion for cinema since he first carried a Super 8 camera at the age of eight.

At the dawn of the 21st century, Christopher Nolan was still an unknown name. He completed his short film "Doodlebug" in 1997, then presented his first feature film, "Following," in 1998. Afterward, he moved to the United States, driven by his cinematic vision and ambition, as if a star were guiding him along the path he should take. There, in Hollywood, he achieved his remarkable film "Memento" (2000), which marked a turning point in his career.

The film's success led to the completion of "Insomnia" (2002), before Warner Bros. bet on him in 2005, tasking him with directing "Batman Begins" while granting him a large budget and wide creative freedom. The result was one of the best films to deal with the character of Batman, alongside Tim Burton’s 1989 version, paving the way for a trilogy considered among the most prominent in superhero cinema. Since then, Nolan has continued to make the films he believed in, until he became one of the most prominent film directors in the world today.

His journey to Hollywood carried with it an ambition to make grand cinema. He realized that British cinema did not offer productions of this scale, and he did not want to spend his time on projects with limited resources. This passion was also reflected in his constant interest in filming techniques, especially the camera systems he uses. He started shooting his films on 35mm film, then later shifted to using IMAX cameras and 65mm Kodak film, starting with his film "Dunkirk" (2017). In his new film, he uses an advanced camera that combines IMAX technology and 65mm film, with the ability to project in 70mm format, the format that was famous for major historical and epic films during the 1960s and 1970s.

Intellectual and Visual Space

Beyond the technical aspects, we find that the common features of his films keep pace with his visual achievements. He is a director who does not only tell an exciting story, but also engages with deep and significant themes. He asks the viewers of each of his films to think about what they see, not just follow it. This is a difficult challenge. Many preceded him in this, but many of them failed.

"Memento," as a beginning, constitutes more than just the story of a man searching for his wife’s killer. Its protagonist suffers from memory loss, which forces him to invent alternative means to achieve his goal. Conversely, Nolan adopts a non-traditional narrative style, starting at the end and returning sequentially to the beginning.

"Insomnia" is a crime film that leans on psychological drama, starring Al Pacino in one of his best roles of this century. The detective arrives in Alaska to take over the investigation of a murder case, where he undergoes psychological crises and moral conflicts that shake his convictions.

In the "Batman" trilogy ("Batman Begins" 2005, "The Dark Knight" 2008, and "The Dark Knight Rises" 2012), Nolan does not settle for presenting the character as a dark knight standing at an equal distance from the law and his enemies; rather, he reframes him within a realistic context that differs from most previous "Batman" films and the majority of superhero films in cinema, in terms of the depth of the character and the realistic treatment of it. Yes, Nolan’s Batman films remain exciting and heroic, but they are far from being cartoonish or devoid of themes that invite thought as a condition for completing visual pleasure.

Nolan is distinguished by being a director who chooses his projects carefully, aiming to turn every film into a spacious intellectual and visual arena. The diversity of the subjects he handles is no less important than his style in treating them; he moves from the police film in "Insomnia" to the suspense in "Inception," from science fiction in "Interstellar" to the war film in "Dunkirk," then to the biographical drama in "Oppenheimer," before arriving today at the world of historical epics with "Odyssey."

This new film is not without adventure, as its huge cost requires it to generate revenue many times its budget before entering the circle of profit. However, Nolan is banking on a large fan base that has accompanied him throughout his career, and is also relying on attracting fans of historical epics, based on his unparalleled visual style. Furthermore, his films have grossed billions of dollars at the box office, which has earned him the trust of Hollywood studios, which no longer hesitate to fund his most ambitious and expensive projects.