It is a film about the weight of history—not just the history in textbooks, but the history in the soil, in our bones, and in our hearts. Alice Rohrwacher has crafted a eulogy for the living and a love letter to the dead. It asks us to consider our own Chimeras: What impossible thing are we searching for? And what happens if we actually find it?
While traditional archaeologists rely on maps and academic training, Arthur possesses a clairvoyant ability to "sense the void"—the subterranean empty spaces where ancient tombs lie undisturbed. Armed with a dowsing rod, he slips into trancelike states to pinpoint hidden chambers. While his tombaroli companions see these discoveries strictly as a path to quick cash via black-market fences, Arthur’s motivations are deeply spiritual. He digs not for gold, but to catch a glimpse of the afterlife, hoping to find a red thread that connects him back to Beniamina. Rohrwacher's La Chimera – a tapestry of human fragility
The dual meaning of "La Chimera" is key to understanding both the ancient myth and the modern film. In a general sense, the word "chimera" has come to denote any fantastic idea, an illusion, or an unrealizable dream. In Rohrwacher's film, the chimera is Arthur's impossible goal: to find a door to the afterlife. It is a pursuit that is as destructive as it is beautiful, driving him to plunder the past in a desperate, perhaps futile, attempt to reclaim a love that is gone. Yet, the film also celebrates the chimeric—the blending of disparate elements into a coherent, visionary whole. Just as the monster is a hybrid of lion, goat, and snake, Rohrwacher's masterpiece is a hybrid of genres, styles, and realities, one that leaves a lasting impression long after the credits roll. La Chimera
La Chimera was critically acclaimed upon its release in 2023. Josh O'Connor received particular praise for his physical, wordless performance—speaking Italian with a British accent and communicating largely through weary glances and frantic movement. The film was celebrated for its originality, blending humor, tragedy, and folklore into a cohesive meditation on love and loss.
However, unlike his companions, Arthur has no interest in the money or the artifacts they unearth. He is a man haunted by a profound personal loss: the disappearance of his beloved Beniamina (Yile Vianello), the daughter of his landlady, Flora (Isabella Rossellini). Arthur's quest is not for material wealth but for a metaphysical chimera—a doorway to the afterlife where he hopes to be reunited with her. His ghost-like existence is complicated when he meets Italia (Carol Duarte), a young, joyful, and resilient single mother living under Flora's roof, who seems to represent life and hope, in stark contrast to Arthur's fixation on death. It is a film about the weight of
How La Chimera fits into the broader genre of Italian "Magical Realism."
First described in Homer's Iliad , the Chimera was a monstrous, fire-breathing hybrid creature of Lycia, possessing the body of a lion, a head of a goat protruding from its back, and a snake for a tail. And what happens if we actually find it
Long before Rohrwacher's film, the keyword held a monumental place in Italian letters via , La Chimera . Winning the prestigious Strega Prize in 1990, Vassalli’s work uses the exact same title metaphor to examine a darker period of Italian history: the counter-reformation and witch trials of the early 17th century.
The film's title refers to a "chimera"—a mythological beast made of disparate parts, representing an unattainable dream or a dangerous illusion.