The Marbles (2025) review: Get them to the Greeks?

You’ve got to hand it to the Greeks. Over the years they’ve given the world culture, kebabs and cracking summer getaways. In return, Britain spirited away the priceless Parthenon Marbles from the Acropolis in Athens some 200 years ago, and they’ve been housed in the British Museum ever since.

Or perhaps it’s just a case of finders keepers when it comes to the Elgin Marbles, to give them their more famous title. Director David Nicholas Wilkinson has bravely tried to settle the argument in this two-hour docu-film, simply but effectively titled The Marbles. Genius, seriously.

The rightful owner, title and all the rest of the spoils, are probably things that some people don’t really care about if they’re being honest. Let’s face it, when was the last time you heard about the Marbles on the news or read about them in a newspaper? But after watching this passionate piece, you’re guaranteed to be rooting firmly for either Team GB or Team Greece. Who takes the Marbles? You decide!

Spoiler alert: unless you’ve got some kind of vested interest, it’s hard to see why you’d be dead against them going back to their homeland. However, it’s clear from the off that Wilkinson wants you to watch without prejudice, something that may prove testing if you’re very much anti-establishment. Despite nailing his own colours firmly to the mast, he’s also determined to provide some balance to the argument; the kind of integrity that many Hollywood directors would do well to learn from.

And he’s right to do so because, as convincing as the arguments for repatriation of the Marbles are, the moral question is a little more complex than it seems. No-one knows for sure if they were stolen as such, but this is countered by their cultural significance and plenty of precedence in similar cases. So alongside this tale of treachery there’s plenty of scope for nice, succulent, juicy debate.

Back in the 19th-century, you had Lord Byron, no less, weighing in with his two pennies worth. One of the more famous faces contributing to The Marbles is Brian Cox, an actor who’s definitely not shirked from political opinion in recent years. Whilst he offers some interesting thoughts and inescapable truths, his Scottish patriotism is thinly-veiled to put it mildly.

This is somewhat symptomatic of the movie. When it goes off on a tangent talking about other ‘stolen’ artefacts being repatriated, it’s giving important context, whereas some of the political digressions are quite unnecessary. Yes, certain Prime Ministers have ruled out the Marbles’ being returned, but are their shortcomings as leaders really that relevant? It almost compromises that integrity of Wilkinson’s mentioned earlier, as this otherwise wonderful documentary comes dangerously close to becoming a political point-scoring exercise.

However, the ball is certainly in Westminster‘s court, and this adds an interesting layer because it’s a fact that the vast majority of the public – those who have a view, at least – are in favour of repatriation. So, does it typify the attitude of the English elite? Would it explain why so many of the British Museum’s alumni declined to comment? If the government wants brownie points on the world stage, perhaps the answer doesn’t lie in net zero, but elsewhere.

That last sentence alone is proof this documentary can get anyone interested and animated, and also make you wonder just how big a bombshell it’ll be if and when the Marbles are returned. Judging by the passion shown by so many throughout this art history epic, it’ll be, well, epic.

Stirling’s Macrobert Arts Centre will screen this impossibly fitting premiere, as The Marbles opens the Central Scotland Documentary Festival on October 30. It then hits UK and Irish cinemas on November 7, but don’t count on the government having a change of heart.