Žižek and especially Gramsci were right
Vijesti, published by Daily Press d.o.o. in Podgorica, Montenegro, has released an English translation of an insightful essay by Savo Đorojević titled The Politics of Nolan's Odyssey: The Angel of History Looks at Troy (05.09.2026).
The original version: Politika Nolanove Odiseje: Anđeo istorije gleda Troju (05.09.2026).
Keywords: ambition, civilization, reinterpretation, moral transgression, self-questioning, remorse, the limit(s) of Nolan's vision, the limits of Nolan's political imagination, Nolan's liberalism, "Odysseus changes. But not Ithaca.", "Nolan is Demodocus."
Names: Walter Benjamin (his interpretation of Paul Klee's painting Angelus Novus), Eric H. Klein, Adorno and Horkheimer, Thomas Carlyle, Oppenheimer (the film), The Dark Knight, Slavoj Žižek ("knowing that a system is violent does not necessarily mean opposing it"), Gramsci ("power is not maintained solely by the will of individuals at the top, but rather survives and regenerates itself through a network of institutions and ideological mechanisms that make existing social relations self-evident" = "Authority is most stable when it ceases to function as pure repression and begins to be experienced as the natural order of things."), Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake and Sorry We Missed You) and Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies).
Selected idea:
Nolan easily imagines a hero who realizes that the history in which he participated was terrible, but remains incapable of imagining a history in which such a great man is no longer needed at all. ... Nolan, then, fails to imagine a different political order behind the ruins. But he is no longer able to restore the semblance of innocence to the old order either. This is both the strength and the limit of his Odyssey. This is why this adaptation of the Odyssey is representative of our moment: we have become sufficiently aware of the coming catastrophe that we can no longer sing songs of victory with complete sincerity ... but we are still unable to imagine a politics that does not depend on the search for more enlightened kings.
Žižek and especially Gramsci were right.