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Available at home
An English archaeologist seeks a legendary door to the underworld with his tomb-robbing crew.
Trailer
Why watch this film?
Chief Editor at Filmelier
Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. In an adventurous journey between the living and the dead, between forests and cities, between celebrations and solitudes, the intertwined destinies of these characters unfold, all in search of the Chimera.
"Whether in the documentary genre (Four Roads) or in dramatic fiction (Happy as Lazzaro), Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher has the ability to capture a certain dreamlike texture, or magical realism, as if her stories were set in other times or planes of existence that are both familiar and impossible. The same can be said of La Chimera, her film selected at the Cannes Festival 2023. The plot follows a small-time thief, Arthur (The Crown's Josh O'Connor), who is just getting out of prison and returns to his old ways when he is recruited by his old gang to search for and steal antiques. However, his search is something more personal and mystical, as he longs for a woman he lost. The narrative is as chimerical as his character's journey, and therefore there is a mystery at the heart of the film that speaks to both our sense and purpose of life, as well as the longing and lament for what is lost in time."