La chimera (Italian: [la kiˈmɛːra]; lit. 'The chimera') is a 2023 comedy-drama film written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher. It is set in Italy in the 1980s in a small town on the Tyrrhenian Sea and stars Josh O'Connor as a British archaeologist-turned-grave robber with a gift for divining the locations of Etruscan tombs. Isabella Rossellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Carol Duarte, and Vincenzo Nemolato appear in supporting roles.
La chimera was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered on 26 May 2023. It was released in Italy by 01 Distribution on 23 November 2023. It received 13 nominations at the 69th David di Donatello awards. The film received positive reviews from critics, being named one of the top 5 international films of 2023 by the National Board of Review.
Contents
Plot
In 1980, Arthur, a British former archaeologist, returns to Italy after being released from prison; he was arrested for stealing artifacts from tombs to sell to an art dealer named Spartaco. He goes to visit his ex-girlfriend Beniamina's mother, Flora, at her family home, where he also meets her live-in maid and student, Italia. Beniamina has been missing for an undisclosed amount of time, but her mother is convinced she will one day return. Beniamina's sisters are sick of Arthur seemingly freeloading off their mother and try to find him a job, which he refuses.
At his hut, Arthur discovers that his collection of artifacts is missing. Arthur confronts his gang of tombaroli friends, and they return the stolen artifacts and attempt to reconcile. He rebuffs them initially, but accompanies them to the Epiphany celebrations in town. During the festival, a farmer approaches them about locating a tomb on his land.
Arthur, his gang, and a young photographer named Melodie, search for the tomb, which Arthur locates using a dowsing twig and through his 'chimeras,' visions he experiences near gravesites. Arthur and his friends deceive the farmer and excavate the Etruscan grave goods for themselves. The tombaroli continue to rob tombs, collecting artifacts to sell, and bringing them to Spartaco who runs an illicit operation inside a veterinary clinic.
Arthur and Italia grow close after some time, and Arthur expresses romantic interest in her one night as they dance on a beach. The evening is interrupted when Arthur experiences a vision, locating a grave. Upon realizing that Arthur and his friends are graverobbers, Italia threatens to call the police. She asks Arthur what Beniamina would think of him, but the others tell her that Beniamina is dead. Upset, Italia leaves.
Inside the tomb, Arthur and his friends discover a statue of Cybele. His friends decapitate the statue to move it out of the tomb, devastating Arthur. Hearing police sirens, the tombaroli flee with the head of the statue, unaware that the sirens were a trick by a rival group attempting to steal the artifacts. Flora's family discovers that Italia was secretly hiding her children in her room and they evict her.
Melodie brings the gang to Spartaco, who is her aunt. They find Spartaco on a boat, running an auction to sell the rest of the statue, which she estimates is of invaluable worth. The tombaroli attempt to bargain with her by using the head as blackmail. Arthur reveals the head to her, but has a change of heart and tosses it overboard and into the water.
Furious with Arthur, his gang parts ways with him. Out on the streets after his hut is taken down by police, Arthur runs into Italia's daughter, Colombina. She takes him to her mother, who is now living in an abandoned train station with other single mothers. The two reconcile and share a kiss, only for him to leave again in the morning.
Arthur joins the group of tomb robbers who previously pretended to be police. After locating a tunnel and at the insistence of the group, Arthur reluctantly enters. The shaft crumbles behind him, trapping him inside. He has a final vision where he reunites with Beniamina.
Production
Filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher planned La chimera as the last part of a trilogy with Le meraviglie (The Wonders, 2014) and Lazzaro felice (Happy as Lazzaro, 2018) to investigate our relationship with the past. For the last film she chose an international cast for the first time.
Filming was in February 2022 and in August 2022, on locations in southern Tuscany (Montalcino, Asciano–Monte Antico railway, Monte Amiata Scalo, Torrenieri), northern Lazio (Tarquinia, Blera, San Lorenzo Nuovo, Civitavecchia) and Umbria (villa di Casa Pisana in Castel Giorgio), with additional filming in Switzerland.
Release
La chimera premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 26 May 2023, where it was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or and received a nine-minute standing ovation. It screened at the 61st New York Film Festival in October 2023. It was also invited at the 28th Busan International Film Festival in 'Icon' section and was screened on 7 October 2023.
It was released in Italy by 01 Distribution on 23 November 2023, and in France by Ad Vitam on 6 December 2023. Neon acquired North American distribution rights to the film at the Marché du Film at Cannes in May 2022; it was released in the United States by Neon on 29 March 2024. Earlier, in the United States, it was released for a one-week awards-qualifying run beginning 8 December 2023. Elastica released the film in Spain on 19 April 2024. Curzon released the film in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 10 May 2024.
Reception
Box office
The film opened in North America on 29 March 2024 and grossed $44,511 from 3 theatres during its opening weekend, finishing 32nd at the box office.
As of 11 September 2024, La chimera grossed $1 million in North America (USA, Canada and Puerto Rico), and $4,231,797 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $5.2 million.
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 151 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "If La Chimera is a wild, improbable pursuit, this marvelous and magical tale by Alice Rohrwacher is the pie in the sky to behold." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 91 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
In his review for Variety, following its premiere at Cannes, Guy Lodge called the film "marvelously supple and sinuous" and commended Rohrwacher's direction, the cinematography and the cast performances, particularly O'Connor's, of which he wrote: "Raffish and boyish at the same time—or switching between either mode as a cover for the other—O'Connor's deft, droll performance implies such possibilities without sentimentalizing them". Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film five out of five stars, reporting that the film "totally occupies its own narrative space," depicting "a poignant sense of Italy as a treasure trove of past glories, a necropolitan culture of ancient excellence," through direction that is "exhilarating and celebratory in its utterly distinctive style."
The film was considered one of the best Italian films of 2023 by Italian critics. Alessandro De Simone of Ciak wrote that it has "an avowedly Pasolinian structure" in which the director inserts "a calculated anarchy in narrative and in staging," finding it overall "very simple, the chaos is orderly, fascinating and magical," although "it could have been more so." Andrea Chimento of Il Sole 24 Ore described the project as Rohrwacher's "most ambitious and profound operation", which although it "spins too much in the middle part," emerges as "an intriguing and enigmatic film, endowed with a symbolic atmosphere that makes it a feature film worth thinking about and digesting."
In June 2025, IndieWire ranked the film at number 18 on its list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far)." In July 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition of The New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 187.