Tuming to The Odyssey for inspiration, Angelopoulos crafts a film about the burden of memory each of us carries with us. A Greek-American filmmaker identified only as A, returns to his hometown in northern Greece when his latest film is screened there. He has an ulterior motive, though: A is dedicated to seeking out the last three missing reels of film by the pioneering Manakla brothers. The Manaklas traveled through the Balkans in the earty part of the century - in spite of ethnic strife - filming average people and craftsmen. A is seeking the truth and innocence he is convinced is contained within those reels, as well as the key to the region′s history. He heads out across the war-ravaged Balkans toward Sarajevo, to a demolished film archive. Like Odysseus - or Ulysses - A encounters people from the past - people who stamp a life, and not just his but also the Manakla′s. Like Ulysses, he finds his Ithaca, albeit in the three reels. When he does, unlike Ulysses, it indicates the start of a new journey for him; a new odyssey.