La chimera is another terrific work from one of Italy’s great auteurs, Alice Rohrwacher, raising thought-provoking questions of how the contemporary exists with the ancient, with a dynamic cast of characters and her trademark element of unexplained, wondrous magic in the modern world.

Arthur (Josh O’Connor), an Englishman who’s just been released from prison, returns to rural Tuscany and both his social circles there: the formerly aristocratic family of his late girlfriend, Beniamina, with the decaying villa they cling to; and that of his criminal accomplices living in town, with whom he finds, excavates, and sells artifacts from ancient Etruscan tombs. Through his visits with Beniamina’s mother Flora, Arthur strikes up a connection with her student and de facto housekeeper, named Italia, but struggles to keep his new potential romance separate from his criminal lifestyle; to dig up the past is a barrier to love.

Arthur’s abilities are more than just grave-digging, though; he has a mysterious ability to detect the locations of ancient graves using tree branches as dowsing rods, gently steering them as a guide to the treasure. His skill is unmatched and one-of-a-kind, and armed with this ability he plays the chief navigator, and leader, of their scrappy criminal brigade. As his namesake suggests, he’s like a King Arthur wielding Excalibur, the only one worthy of such power, while his motley crew are his Knights of the Round Table. There is something supernatural, and unexplained about his ability, adding a poignant mysticism to the contemporary world.

Even with such power though, death and decay loom throughout the film, creating a growing sense of dread through its production design and camerawork. Flora’s country home, no doubt stunning in its heyday, has peeling walls and is starting to decay; her daughters want her to move into a senior home, and pick out which objects they want, as if Flora’s time has come and they need to preemptively move on. Arthur’s gang of grave-robbing tombaroli fearlessly rob the dead, breaking into ancient tombs, brushing aside bones, and snatching up objects left behind, without a second thought that they’re desecrating a final resting place.

A compelling visual motif (also seen in the film’s poster) is that of Arthur upside-down, mirroring the tarot card for the “Hanged Man,” reinforcing the sense of doom. In an exciting moment of cinematography, Arthur’s using his dowsing rod to discover a new dig site; the camera moves downward, following where the rod is pointing, continues down to the dead leaves and dirt, and arcs back up, with the image now oriented upside-down, with Arthur inexplicably further ahead up the path. The image of him upside-down continues, as brief pulses when he’s found another site, as well as the ending of they film, when he’s reflected in a small puddle. Upon an early meeting with Italia, she even comments that his dowsing rod, in its original state as a sapling in the ground, looks like a man buried head-first with his legs in the air.

As a foil to the doom surrounding Arthur, is how the present can coexist and even benefit from the ancient. Flora takes them to the Riparbella train station, abandoned long ago, now belonging to no one, or to everyone. There is a sense of collective ownership of once-public goods; the grass-covered train tracks and ancient aqueducts feel as much as part of the landscape as mountains and trees. While for belongings and spaces dedicated to individuals, within tombs, it feels like a greater violation and loss, with statues broken and murals instantly fading when exposed to the elements. The Etruscan tomb feels like a loss when construction sites rise up over it, but it’s also lost upon its opening, as murals fade upon their first exposure to air in millennia.

This also provokes questions around what’s abandoned underground, in the tombs; does that too belong to no one, or everyone at this point? How long does ownership last, and who can rightfully lay claim to it? The Etruscan artifacts as attainable goods certainly don’t seem to belong to Arthur, a foreigner; but do they belong to the landowners whose property encompasses the tomb? Do they belong to a museum, or art dealers who can afford them? Or do the original owners still lay claim, centuries after their deaths?

With echoes of her previous work, such as The Wonders, Alice Rohrwacher continues to explore how the ancient and the modern coexist, in ways both exploitive and beautiful.

La chimera was screened at the 2024 Palm Springs International Film Festival and is being distributed by Neon, coming to US theaters starting March 29, 2024.