V E N T N O R   F I L M  S O C I E T Y​​

Everyone has their own Chimera, something they yearn to achieve but never manage to find. For a band of tombaroli, professional tomb-robbers of ancient Etruscan grave goods and archaeological wonders, the Chimera means the dream of giving up work and finding the treasure of a lifetime.

 

But for Arthur, a dodgy English archaeologist, the Chimera has the face of the woman he lost, Beniamina. To find her, Arthur pursues the invisible, searches everywhere, digs deep inside the earth – in a magical search for the mythical door to the afterlife. In an adventurous journey between past and the present, in forests and cities, amid solitude and the riotous celebrations of an Italian fiesta, the intertwined destinies of these colourful characters unfold, each of them in search of their personal Chimera.

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Arthur reconnects with Beniamina’s mother Flora (Isabella Rossellini) in her decrepit mansion where he meets her maid, Italia, and the two become close - until she gets wise to his plundering. Meanwhile, Arthur and his tombaroli – merry pranksters with grinning faces and a complete lack of scruples – scrape together an illicit living, fraught with police chases and rival gangs, until Arthur finally rebels against the destructive impulse to possess treasures that were never intended, as Italia tells him, “for human eyes”.

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Ostensibly a comic crime caper, this is, in fact, a moving, profound and touching story, and a real treasure of a film.​

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To book, please email ventnorfilmsociety@hotmail.com.

 

The Critics Say...

"Enigmatic, absorbing and so much more alive than any pottery behind glass in a museum, this is an exquisitely crafted, grown-up Indiana Jones steeped in its own distinctive magic." ***** Laura Vanning, Empire Magazine

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"If you’re in the mood for something original and woozy and riotous and wonderfully special, you will be able to fill your boots." Deborah Ross, The Spectator

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"Rohrwacher’s divine La Chimera is an observant and comic portrait of a moment within Italian history, and an earthy, shimmering fable about the gravesites we walk over every day." Mark Asch, Little White Lies

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"La Chimera is often enrapturing, focusing on a fascinating character and his troubled relationship to the world and its physical history." *** Laura Babiak, The Observer

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