Legend has it that Helen's legendary beauty and sexual allure led to the destruction of Troy. This film presents a different portrait of the woman whose face famously launched a thousand ships.

In “Helen of Troy, 1993,” the poet Maria Zoccola relocates a figure from Greek mythology into small-town Tennessee.

Their voices have been dubbed. The story opens with Paris’ journey to Sparta to effect a peace treaty between the Greeks and Troy. He falls in love with Helen not knowing she is the queen of Sparta.

The question of Helen’s involvement in the Trojan War clearly poses difficult questions—and has done so ever since the age of ...