There is a moment about halfway through Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera where the protagonist, Arthur (Josh O’Connor), stands at the edge of an illegally dug tomb. He is a tomb robber, an tombarolo, in 1980s rural Tuscany. He has a strange, almost supernatural gift: he can feel the presence of underground chambers, a dowsing rod for death. In this moment, the camera doesn’t rush. It lingers. Dust motes swim in a beam of Etruscan light. Arthur lowers himself into the darkness. He is not looking for treasure. He is looking for her.
That is the central, aching irony of La Chimera. It is a film about men who dig up the past for profit, but it is really about one man who cannot stop digging for a ghost.
If you are searching for where to stream La Chimera, availability varies by region. As of late 2025: La Chimera
Pro-tip: Watch the film with subtitles, even if you speak Italian. The film weaves English, Italian, and an invented Etruscan-sounding dialect. The subtitles help you navigate Rohrwacher’s linguistic labyrinth.
At the center of La Chimera is Arthur (played with raw, physical vulnerability by Josh O’Connor), a British misfit living in rural Italy during the 1980s. Arthur possesses a strange, inexplicable talent: dowsing. Using a simple bent twig, he can sense the presence of buried Etruscan tombs beneath the Italian soil. La Chimera: A Mythological Heist Movie About Grief,
Arthur is a tombarolo—a grave robber. He leads a ragtag band of fellow outcasts across the countryside, digging illegal tunnels to unearth priceless ancient vases, statues, and sarcophagi, which they then sell on the black market. But Arthur isn’t interested in the money. He hoards his share of the loot not to get rich, but to search for something specific: a doorway. He is looking for a path to the underworld, driven by the hope of reuniting with his lost love, Beniamina.
This tragic motivation transforms La Chimera from a simple crime drama into a profound meditation on grief. For Arthur, every illicit dig is an act of desperation. He violates the earth not for greed, but for love. United States: Available for purchase on Apple TV,
Alice Rohrwacher shoots the film on 16mm film, giving it a grainy, dreamlike, and nostalgic texture. The style feels like a mix of neorealism and a fairy tale. The camera lingers on faces, dirt, and the stark contrast between the darkness of the tombs and the blinding sunlight of the Tuscan countryside.