Once again Angelopoulos turns to Greek myth as a foundation, and makes it relate to contemporary Greece. An old man retums from a 32-year Soviet exile, a symbol of the country′s leftist past. He is befriended by a young man, a filmmaker who is tired of the fundamental falsity of his job. The old man finds himselir out or sync with the new Greece and it is quite possible the new Greece is not ready to deal with what the old man represents about it. Nationless, homeless, the old man eventually heads out into the open sea with is loyal and accepting wife - virtual strangers to each other now. The old man, his wife, and the young filmmaker are a latter-day Odysseus, Penelope and Telemachus respectively. But whereas Odysseus was at the end of his journey, this old man is at the beginning. According to myth, Cythera is an island where one can concentrate solely on happiness, and the film is a joumey to a place in history where Greek history meets Greek myth.