Trama

In a desert dystopia, a modern Ulysses wakes up with no memory of his past in the arms of a shamanic Calypso. As his memories resurface he struggles to understand if she is helping him or keeping him captive.

Synopsis of the film "Calypso" by Luca Severi

Ulysses wakes up after sleeping for a long time and asks: "Where am I ?" Nobody answers.

We find Ulysses alone, walking in the desert, exhausted. He finds an iron barrel with some water and drinks them. His sight cloud over, he faints.

California desert. A man drives a station wagon and talks to his mobile phones letting someone know about his imminent arrival home, in Phoenix, after a business meeting. Soon after, the same man wakes up anxious inside an RV outside of which, dazzled by the sun, he meets a woman, Calypso, who reassures him and explain to him he his home, he has nothing to worry about and that's just one of his recurring sizzles. He tries to escape, even though around him there's only desert. Then, finally, he reaches the sea but without a boat and any point of reference it's too hard to face: the only solution is go back to Calypso, the only hook to rebuilt a reality that he doesn't know anymore. She is caring and gentle, but at the same time broken by his pushing questions about his present and past. Ulysses in fact doesn't accepts to be in that place, even if he finds everything he needs to survive , and doesn't want that to be his home where his future will be. Calypso tries as much as she can to convince him: around them there's nothing left but their life, together, will still be wonderful as it has been till that moment. Ulysses doesn't believe her. While he tries to find elements of his life, he wanders in the desert still looking to find any other life form. He dreams of a house, of a child, of a city destroyed by a tragic event. Maybe Calypso is right, he already came back home, there, and his life now with her is the best he can dream of. He then decides to be helpful in that apparently hostile place and give back some of the attentions she has with him. But that balance doesn't last long. One day Calypso betrays herself, or maybe tries once again to calm him down: she tells him that a farmer drove by and dropped some wheat berries that they could eat. Someone is still alive around them, then ? Someone who crosses those territories, as he maybe did a while before ? Ulysses finds again his motivation to look for something else. Then, he finds a boat, maybe his boat, abandoned on the top of a hill that brings back memories and reminds him who he is: a sailor looking for his land. Life in the desert is too tight for him. Ulysses suffers of the limits that doesn't belong to him any longer and he knows he can overcome them. He attacks the territory, tried to rule it, he kills a desert wolf he thinks is stealing their food from the traps they placed around their home. He finally feels to own that land, his land: he now wants to dominate it, as he wants to dominate her as well. Calypso understands Ulysses is out of control, crazy, enemy of himself. She has to stop him before is too late. She goes to the dwell where makes a medicine she then gives to Ulysses. He faints and looses his memories once again. Everything comes back to normal: Ulysses wakes up between Calypso's arms, he doesn't know how he is and can be taken care from her. Until memories come back again, stronger than ever, thanks to a random incident. Violent memories of a war and sorrow and pain, that he created and is now punished for it, exiled in that lonely place. The escape seems one more time the only solution to survive but this time he arrives to a ghost town, empty and partially destroyed. Ulysses find a car, inside of which there's a picture of a man and a child with Ithaca written on: maybe that's the child he dreamed of. He goes back to Calypso's only for a farewell but she understands he is in the grip of his paranoids and drugs him and make shim sleep. When he wakes up, Ulysses understood: she just wants to keep him there. She denies: he is the one who went insane and imagine a life that he never lived. She must sedate him to erase the memories that can destroy him. He refuses and tries to escape: she stops him at first, then give up. There's nothing else she can do: Ulysses has to follow his destiny, no matter where it will take him. The two of say goodbye for the last time. Ulysses is alone, walking in the desert, exhausted. He finds an iron barrel with some water and drinks them. His sight cloud over, he faints. He wakes up and asks "Where am I ?" A woman answers, it's Calypso: "You are home"