La chimera (2023), written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher, follows a group of grave robbers through an Italy where ancient history lies just beneath everyday life. Josh O’Connor plays Arthur, a restless outsider whose search for buried objects hides a deeper longing.
The film moves between comedy, romance, and a ghost story. Muddy fields, faded interiors, and lively gatherings give it a strong sense of place. Yet dreams and memories keep interrupting the physical world. For Arthur, the distance between the living and the dead seems painfully small.
With Isabella Rossellini, Carol Duarte, and Alba Rohrwacher in its cast, La chimera offers an unusual journey through desire and loss. It also asks a direct question: what happens when people treat every trace of the past as something to sell?
The Story
Spoiler notice: This section discusses the premise and central relationships but leaves the ending unrevealed.
Set in 1980s Italy, La chimera follows Arthur as he returns to a community of tombaroli, or tomb robbers. These companions search for Etruscan burial sites and sell the objects they uncover.
Arthur has an uncanny ability to sense underground spaces. For the others, his gift promises another discovery and another payday. His own motives, however, remain tied to Beniamina, the woman he has lost. The film connects his searches beneath the earth with his longing to reach her again.
The group gives the story much of its rough humor. Their schemes, arguments, and celebrations bring warmth to a world built around theft. Nevertheless, their easy companionship cannot remove the damage they cause.
An object that once belonged to a burial ritual becomes merchandise. Its meaning changes as it passes from the earth into human hands.
Meanwhile, Arthur visits Flora, Beniamina’s mother. Her household preserves another kind of past, sustained by memory and the hope that absence might somehow end.
There he encounters Italia, whose energy offers a possible connection to the present. Their relationship introduces a different question. Can Arthur make room for another person while remaining so devoted to someone he cannot recover?
The title captures this tension. A chimera can be an imagined goal or an impossible dream. Each character reaches for something, whether wealth, belonging, freedom, or love. Arthur’s search is especially moving because finding buried treasure cannot necessarily give him what he wants.
Cast and Characters
Josh O’Connor as Arthur
O’Connor gives Arthur an awkward, unsettled presence. His silences often suggest that his attention lies elsewhere, even when he stands among friends.
The performance balances tenderness with impatience. Arthur can seem withdrawn, then suddenly angry or alert. As a result, his grief feels difficult and unpredictable rather than neatly explained.
Carol Duarte as Italia
Italia brings warmth, resolve, and a practical awareness of other people. Duarte gives her a life beyond Arthur’s needs.
That independence matters. Italia offers the possibility of connection, but she also has her own concerns and judgments. Her response to the tomb robbers challenges their casual treatment of the dead.
Isabella Rossellini as Flora
Flora holds tightly to the memory of Beniamina. Rossellini combines authority, humor, and sorrow, allowing these qualities to coexist within the same scene.
Her attachment to the past echoes Arthur’s. However, she expresses it through the habits and expectations of a household rather than through journeys underground.
Alba Rohrwacher as Frida
Frida belongs to the business surrounding the stolen objects. Her role broadens the story’s view of power and profit. The people who dig up the artifacts occupy only one part of a much larger trade.
Vincenzo Nemolato as Pirro
Pirro helps give the group its unruly social energy. Nemolato contributes to the film’s shifting tone, where friendly chatter and opportunism can sit uncomfortably close together. The European Film Academy confirms O’Connor, Rossellini, Rohrwacher, and Nemolato in these roles.
Awards and Recognition
La chimera screened in Competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, placing it among that year’s contenders for the Palme d’Or. This continued Rohrwacher’s relationship with the festival, following The Wonders and Happy as Lazzaro.
At the 2023 European Film Awards, Emita Frigato won European Production Design for the film. Josh O’Connor received a European Actor nomination. These are separate distinctions: Frigato won her category, while O’Connor was a nominee.
The production-design award feels especially appropriate. Buildings, rooms, and objects carry much of the story’s emotional weight. The visible wear of a wall or a piece of furniture suggests lives that began long before Arthur arrived.
Similarly, the contrast between inhabited spaces and buried chambers makes history feel close. The past surrounds these characters even when they dismiss it.
For a wider view of the country’s festival successes, explore Italia Mia’s guide to Italian movie award winners.
How the Film Was Made
Rohrwacher drew inspiration from the landscape and stories of Etruria, the area where she grew up. In a Cannes interview, she recalled hearing accounts of secret excavations and discoveries during ordinary visits to cafés and country meeting places.
Those stories helped shape a film in which ancient remains form part of daily life. History is present in the soil, in local buildings, and in the tales people tell.
Cinematographer Hélène Louvart worked with Rohrwacher using 35mm, Super 16mm, and 16mm film. The director explained that these formats offered different textures and ways of telling the story. The filmmaking also uses changes of speed and rhythm to move between observation and fable.
These choices give La chimera its handmade feel. Some passages invite us to study a face or a landscape. Others rush forward with the energy of a tale told aloud.
The images can feel earthy and immediate, then suddenly distant or dreamlike. This shifting visual language suits Arthur’s divided attention. He inhabits the present while looking for a path into memory.
The film is an Italian, French, and Swiss co-production. Its credited collaborators include editor Nelly Quettier and production designer Emita Frigato, alongside Louvart.
Within Rohrwacher’s work, it also makes a rewarding companion to The Wonders and Happy as Lazzaro. All three examine communities whose relationship with the past is changing. Italia Mia’s guide to modern Italian film directors places her films in a broader context.
Why It Still Matters
The central conflict in La chimera reaches beyond its period setting. The film asks how people decide what has value.
For the tomb robbers, an ancient object offers the chance to earn money. For a buyer, it may become a possession to display. Yet the same object once belonged to a community’s beliefs, rituals, and understanding of death.
The film encourages us to notice what disappears during that change. A price can travel with an object more easily than its original meaning.
At the same time, Rohrwacher makes the people involved funny, sociable, and contradictory. Their appeal complicates our response. We can enjoy their company while questioning their actions.
Arthur’s grief gives this wider theme an intimate form. He, too, wants to recover something from the past. His longing invites sympathy, but it also limits his ability to participate in the world around him.
Italia introduces another possibility: making a life through relationships and shared space. Her presence allows the film to imagine a future alongside its fascination with what has vanished.
There is also pleasure in the way La chimera welcomes uncertainty. Its mysterious elements do not require a single explanation. Viewers can experience Arthur’s gift as fantasy, metaphor, or part of the film’s own reality.
That openness gives the story room to linger. A gesture, a fragment of song, or a glimpse of a remembered face can remain more powerful than a clear answer.
For viewers exploring beyond familiar classics, La chimera shows the range of contemporary Italian filmmaking. Continue with Italia Mia’s selection of the best Italian movies to discover other approaches to memory, society, and belonging.
Where to Watch or Buy
Viewing information checked on October 5, 2026. Catalogs, prices, and subtitle options can change.
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United States
Streaming through a participating library: Current U.S. listings include Kanopy. Access depends on whether your library or university offers the film.
Digital rental or purchase: Listings show Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, and Fandango at Home. Spectrum On Demand also appears as a rental option. Consult the U.S. viewing guide for La chimera for current offers.
DVD and Blu-ray: U.S. listings include both formats. Browse La chimera DVD and Blu-ray editions on Amazon.com. Check the edition’s region compatibility and English subtitles before ordering.
Italy
Free streaming: RaiPlay has a viewing page for La chimera. Access is subject to the service’s territorial restrictions and current rights.
Subscription streaming: Current Italian listings include TIMVISION, MUBI, and MUBI Amazon Channel. A MUBI channel subscription is separate from standard Amazon Prime membership.
Digital rental or purchase: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, and Rakuten TV appear in the Italian viewing guide. Check the selected offer for audio and subtitle details.
Physical editions: To look for an Italian disc or an imported edition, search La chimera on Amazon.it. This is a retailer search link; stock and edition details require checking before purchase.
Watching While Traveling
If you use a VPN while traveling, you can explore NordVPN through Italia Mia’s affiliate link. A VPN does not guarantee access to RaiPlay or another streaming service. Territorial restrictions and each platform’s terms still apply.
External Sources
- Festival de Cannes: La chimera — official film record
- Festival de Cannes: Alice Rohrwacher discusses La chimera
- European Film Academy: La chimera — awards and credits
- RaiPlay: La chimera
- JustWatch: U.S. availability
- JustWatch: Italian availability
