In The Odyssey, Odysseus spends ten years trying to get home from Troy. In 1977, a Greek director filmed the part of the story Hollywood has never touched: what it cost to sail there in the first place.

IPHIGENIA (1977) opens on a thousand ships stranded at Aulis. The wind has died. The army is restless in the heat. And a priest delivers the price of passage: Agamemnon must sacrifice his own daughter to raise the wind that launches the Trojan War.

Michael Cacoyannis had just finished documenting the Turkish invasion of his native Cyprus when he made this film, completing the Euripides trilogy he began with ELECTRA (1962) and THE TROJAN WOMEN (1971). He knew precisely what he was saying about leaders who spend their children on wars.

He cast Irene Papas as Clytemnestra, then gave the title role to Tatiana Papamoschou, a thirteen-year-old with no acting experience. She carried the film to Oscar and Palme d'Or nominations, and won Best Actress at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Her plea for her life is one of the most devastating scenes in Greek cinema.

Euripides ended his play with a miracle, a deer swapped onto the altar at the last instant. Cacoyannis ends the film differently.

Every story about coming home begins with what it took to leave.