Screening Dates: Sunday, October 26, 2025, 2:00 p.m. / Saturday, November 29, 2025, 2:00 p.m. / Wednesday, December 24, 2025, 8:00 p.m.

Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Screenplay: Alice Rohrwacher, Carmela Covino, Marco Pettenello
Cast: Josh O'Connor, Carol Duarte, Vincenzo Nemolato, Isabella Rossellini

Italy / 2023 / 131 min. / Color / Italian, English / English and Turkish Subtitles

Alice Rohrwacher’s latest film, La chimera, revolves around Arthur, an English archaeologist released from prison in the 1980s, returning to his “home” in Tuscany and reuniting with his friends there. This unsettling but cheerful group of friends are actually tomb raiders who, with Arthur’s help, make a living by discovering Etruscan tombs and stealing the ancient treasures found there. 

Arthur, with his reclusive nature and white suit worn out from frequent use, doesn’t care about money or property. He is actually searching for what he has lost underground. Josh O’Connor, one of today’s popular actors, subtly reflects the character’s introversion and melancholy. 

The director presents a narrative that feels like a fairy tale but is very real, both through her cinematographic choices, such as shooting on 16mm film, and her background in philosophy and literature. Woven with many mythical references, such as the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, as well as the film’s title, La chimera touches on the themes of love, loss, and the search for meaning, as well as many social issues including the constraints of the lower-middle class and marginalized groups, and the hypocrisy of the world’s approach to museology. The carnival scene, paying homage to Fellini, is among the film’s unforgettable moments.

*We would like to thank the Italian Cultural Institute for their contribution to the program.
** The film will be screened within the framework of European Film Month.