Alice Rohrwacher's 2023 film La Chimera blends realism with magical elements to follow a dejected English archaeologist (Josh O'Connor) navigating the 1980s Italian underworld of tomb raiding, or tombaroli. The critically acclaimed film is recognized for its unique visual texture, created through mixed film formats to explore themes of loss and the blurred lines between the past and present. For a detailed critique, read The Guardian's review.
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher, this film follows Arthur (Josh O'Connor), a British archaeologist with a supernatural gift for sensing Etruscan tombs. The Narrative: Set in 1980s Tuscany, Arthur joins a ragtag group of
(grave robbers) who plunder ancient treasures to sell on the black market. The Symbolism:
The "Chimera" represents an unattainable dream. For Arthur, it is the hope of finding his lost love, Beniamina, by locating a door to the afterlife. Preparation Insight: Lead actor Josh O'Connor prepared for the role by keeping a personal scrapbook
containing drawings, moss, and a poem from the director to connect with the film's themes of death and the unseen. 2. The Novel: La Chimera by Sebastiano Vassalli (1990)
This historical novel is considered a masterpiece of contemporary Italian literature.
Based on a true historical record, it tells the story of Antonia, an orphan girl in 17th-century Piedmont who is eventually accused of witchcraft and tried by the Inquisition. The Theme:
The book critiques the cruelty and religious fanaticism of the past, using the "Chimera" as a metaphor for the illusions and dark myths that societies build to justify persecution. 3. The Poem: " La Chimera " by Dino Campana A cornerstone of Italian Orphic poetry from the collection Canti Orfici
The poem is a visionary, dreamlike invocation of a mysterious female figure—the Chimera—who represents beauty, artistic inspiration, and the elusive nature of the soul. The Style:
It is known for its "stravolta" (distorted) syntax and archaic, intoxicating language that blurs the lines between reality and myth. La Chimera
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Alice Rohrwacher's La Chimera (2023) is a dreamlike excavation of memory, grief, and the weight of history. Set in 1980s Tuscany, it follows Arthur (Josh O'Connor), a disheveled British archaeologist with a supernatural gift: he can "divine" the locations of ancient Etruscan tombs using a dowsing rod. The Quest for the Impossible
The film's title refers to a "chimera"—a mythological beast made of disparate parts, representing an unattainable dream or a dangerous illusion.
For the "tombaroli": Arthur's ragtag gang of grave-robbers, the chimera is the dream of easy wealth and a shortcut out of poverty.
For Arthur: His chimera is his lost love, Beniamina. While his companions dig for gold to sell to shadowy dealers like the mysterious Spartaco (Alba Rohrwacher), Arthur digs to find a "door to the afterlife" to reunite with the woman who haunts his dreams. Themes of Life and Death
The film beautifully balances two opposing forces, often through the women in Arthur’s life:
Part I: Ethics of Excavation - 'La Chimera' and ... - Viloves
This informative paper explores La Chimera (2023), the critically acclaimed film by Italian director Alice Rohrwacher
, which serves as a profound meditation on memory, the ethics of excavation, and the unattainable dreams that haunt the human soul. Little White Lies 1. Narrative Framework and Protagonist Alice Rohrwacher's 2023 film La Chimera blends realism
Set in the 1980s in a small town on the Tyrrhenian Sea, the film follows
(played by Josh O’Connor), a British archaeologist with a mystical gift for "divining" the location of subterranean Etruscan treasures. The Tombaroli : Arthur is part of a band of (grave robbers) who loot ancient burial sites for profit. San Francisco Chronicle The Quest for Beniamina
: Unlike his companions, who seek material wealth, Arthur is driven by a desire to find his lost love, Beniamina, whom he believes is waiting for him in the afterlife. The Guardian 2. Etymology and Symbolism The title "La Chimera" carries multiple layers of meaning: The Hidden Treasures of La Chimera - Video Essay
The story follows Arthur (Josh O'Connor), a young British archaeologist and scholar of Etruscan antiquities. Arthur possesses a special, almost supernatural gift: he is a "tombarolo," a grave robber who can sense the presence of ancient tombs underground using a dowsing rod. He can "sing" the earth into revealing its secrets.
At the beginning of the film, Arthur is released from prison. Disheveled and heartbroken, he returns to a small town in Tuscany. He is grieving the loss of his great love, Beniamina, an Italian woman who has recently died under mysterious circumstances. Arthur moves into the dilapidated home of Beniamina’s mother, Flora (Isabella Rossellini), a faded aristocrat living in poverty.
While Flora hopes Arthur will use his education to tutor her daughter’s children, Arthur instead reconnects with a ragtag group of local tombaroli. They lead chaotic, noisy expeditions to dig up Etruscan artifacts, which they sell on the black market to a corrupt art dealer named Spartaco. Arthur participates not for the money, but out of a desperate need to be close to the earth and the past, feeling closer to Beniamina in the silence of the tombs.
The narrative takes a turn when Arthur meets Italia (Carol Duarte), a Brazilian singer and migrant worker living in a shantytown nearby who bears a striking resemblance to the lost Beniamina. Italia challenges Arthur's obsession with the past. She is vibrant, alive, and struggling for a future, contrasting sharply with Arthur's morbid desire to stay buried in history.
The film’s secret heart, however, is not Arthur’s grief but Italia’s stubborn life. Italia is a young mother, a former opera singer with a voice that cracks beautifully. She lives in the same villa as Arthur, raising her daughter and caring for Beniamina’s aging, blind mother, Flora (Isabella Rossellini in a masterclass of quiet devastation). Where Arthur is turned entirely toward the past, Italia is furiously, imperfectly present. She washes clothes. She chases chickens. She sings to her baby in the dark.
Flora, who cannot see, represents another kind of blindness—willful or otherwise. She sits in her garden, attended by a choir of elderly women, waiting for a daughter who will never return. Arthur is drawn to Flora because she is the only one who shares his delusion. She, too, listens for Beniamina’s footsteps. She, too, refuses to let go. Memory and the Past: The film repeatedly returns
Italia watches this with a mixture of pity and rage. She wants Arthur to stop digging holes in her yard. She wants him to see her. But Arthur cannot see the living because he is too busy seeing through them.
In an era of franchise blockbusters and algorithmic storytelling, La Chimera feels like a sacred artifact itself. It is a film that demands patience, rewards curiosity, and ultimately breaks your heart.
We live in a time obsessed with nostalgia. We chase the chimeras of "the good old days," decade-themed parties, and reboots of our childhood cartoons. Arthur is a mirror for the modern anxiety: the feeling that the best thing has already happened, that we are just grave robbers picking through the remains of a more meaningful past.
Rohrwacher’s genius is that she does not offer a solution. The film ends not with a bang, but with a mythic descent. Without spoiling the final sequence, suffice it to say that Arthur finally finds the door he was looking for—and what is on the other side is both terrifying and transcendent.
La Chimera is also a sharp critique of cultural colonialism. Rohrwacher presents the tombaroli not as simple thieves, but as counter-Revolutionaries in a class war. They are poor, landless laborers stealing from the rich Etruscan ancestors and selling to wealthy foreign collectors who display the artifacts in sterile, soulless museums.
In one memorable scene, a snobbish archaeologist calmly explains that the tombaroli are destroying history. But the film invites us to sympathize with the diggers. They see their work as a redistribution of ancestral heritage. If the artifacts are going to rot underground, why shouldn't they be used to feed a hungry family?
Rohrwacher does not offer easy answers. She shows the beauty of the recovered artifacts (real Etruscan art is featured prominently) but also the violence of their removal. The film’s most tragic sequence involves the destruction of a priceless fresco when a tunnel collapses—a metaphor for how the desperation of the present can destroy the treasures of the past.
La Chimera’s strengths are its atmosphere, visual lyricism, and moral subtlety. Its deliberate pace and elliptical storytelling may frustrate viewers expecting a conventional plot or resolution. The film asks patience: much of its emotional payoff accrues from cumulative mood rather than explicit narrative catharsis. Some critics have praised Rohrwacher’s compassionate eye and elegiac tone; others note that the film’s ambiguity and episodic momentum occasionally undercut narrative propulsion.