Katerina Alexander to Retrace Odysseus’ Journey in New Doco

A young Greek-Australian archaeologist and filmmaker will retrace Odysseus’ legendary journey across Greece and the Mediterranean in a new three-part documentary series supported by Screen Australia and YouTube Australia.

Katerina Alexander, 23, will follow the route of Homer’s Odyssey in Tracing Odysseus, taking viewers from the ruins of Troy to the shores of Ithaca while exploring the ancient world behind the 3,000-year-old epic.

The series received support through the eleventh Skip Ahead initiative, a joint program between Screen Australia and YouTube Australia that aims to develop storytelling skills, expand creative ambitions and raise production standards for Australian creators reaching domestic and international audiences.

For Alexander, the project also carries a deeply personal connection to Greece. Her grandparents left the Peloponnese as migrants, taking with them their language and stories of a homeland they could never fully return to.

“I get to do it for them,” Alexander said, describing the journey as a personal homecoming as well as an archaeological investigation.

Alexander holds a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology from the University of Sydney and a Master’s degree in Aegean Bronze Age Archaeology from the University of Athens, where she is based. She speaks Greek, Italian and Spanish and has combined her archaeological studies with filmmaking since childhood.

She created her YouTube channel, fig tree, where she writes, hosts and edits long-form videos about the ancient world. The channel has attracted more than 248,000 subscribers and 6.5 million views, with Alexander known to her audience as “Fig”.

Tracing Odysseus will bring that storytelling style to the locations and landscapes connected with Homer’s epic for the first time.

Alexander said the series would examine the Odyssey simultaneously as literature, archaeology and a deeply personal story.

“People three thousand years ago wanted exactly what we want; to be remembered, to find home, to matter to someone,” she said. “That’s what archaeology really is to me: not finding old things, but a way of finding ourselves.”

The documentary will explore the Bronze Age world behind the mythology, Homer’s interpretation of that world and Alexander’s own journey as a young Greek-Australian returning to the places connected with her heritage.

The production also represents a family reunion of sorts. Alexander’s father, Alex Alexander, who has worked as a screen producer for 20 years, will produce the series.

The pair previously worked together on a short film they entered in Tropfest when Katerina was 10. She later became a Tropfest Junior finalist in 2018 and won the competition in 2019.

Tracing Odysseus is currently in pre-production and will film across Greece and the wider Mediterranean in 2027. The three-part series will feature three 45-minute episodes and will receive an international release through Alexander’s fig tree YouTube channel.

The project is one of five productions supported through the latest Skip Ahead initiative, which Screen Australia and YouTube Australia announced on August 6, 2026.

For Alexander, the journey offers an opportunity to explore one of the world’s oldest stories through both an archaeologist’s eyes and the perspective of a second-generation Greek-Australian searching for her own connection to home.

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