La Chimera

La Chimera centres on Arthur, a British archaeologist who returns to a small town on the Tyrrhenian coast in 1980s Italy. He falls in with a band of tombaroli, local grave robbers who plunder Etruscan tombs and sell the antiquities they find. Arthur has an unusual gift: he can sense the emptiness in the ground where something is buried, and the gang puts that ability to use in their illegal trade. His own interest lies elsewhere, however. Still mourning Beniamina, the woman he lost, he searches for a legendary passage to the underworld in the hope of reaching her again. Around him, each character pursues a private chimera, whether easy money or a vanished love, and their paths cross between forests and cities, celebrations and solitude.

Alice Rohrwacher directed and wrote the film, the sixth feature in her chronological filmography after Corpo Celeste, The Wonders, 9×10 Ninety, Happy as Lazzaro and Le Pupille. Josh O'Connor plays Arthur, with Carol Duarte, Alba Rohrwacher, Isabella Rossellini, Vincenzo Nemolato and Lou Roy-Lecollinet among the cast; 45 performers and 125 crew members are credited. It is an Italian production with American, Turkish, French and Swiss involvement, produced by Carlo Cresto-Dina, Alexandra Henochsberg and Paolo Del Brocco.

Released in October 2023, the film took about 5 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.3 out of 10 from roughly 21,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.3 from 631 votes. A critics' rating of 8.2 from 152 reviews places it above those audience scores.