Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes Get Tearful Speaking About Reuniting for Uberto Pasolini’s Homer Epic ‘The Return’: ‘It Was Destiny’

variety.com:

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Returning to Greece with the historical drama “The Return” proved an emotional affair for Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes and director-producer Uberto Pasolini. “Meeting this dream, this need inside Uberto and his passion for the story… We were really moved,” said Binoche before bursting into tears alongside her co-star and director at the film’s press conference at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. “It was moving because that is what you wish for as an actor,” continued Binoche with a quavering voice, while a visibly teary-eyed Pasolini sat alongside her. “We know how difficult it is [to get a film made].

When we had [Pasolini] go home with the hard drives he could work with and complete this wish, it felt like we were okay. We’re okay.” “The Return,” based on Homer’s ancient Greek poem “Odyssey,” is a passion project 30 years in the making for the “Still Life” and “Nowhere Special” director, best known as the Oscar-nominated producer of “The Full Monty.” In the epic, Fiennes plays Odysseus as he washes up on the shores of his home island of Ithaca after 20 years of fighting in the Trojan War.

Binoche plays Penelope, Odysseus’ wife who spent two decades defending the family’s legacy and now finds herself a prisoner in her own home. “Working with Juliette and Ralph, most of the time you say action and you just watch and watch and watch because it is extraordinary.

They give you something more complex than you could ever have dreamed of,” Pasolini said. “When you’re making a film, you live for these moments.