Film Review: La Chimera is a story of tomb-raiding redemption

La Chimera

• La Chimera
• ★★★★☆
• (Cinema release)

Set in the 1980s, La Chimera (12A) stars Josh O’Connor as Arthur Harrison, once an archaeologist of noble ideals but now penniless and reduced to looting Etruscan tombs in northern Italy with his gang of tombaroli, who sell the grave goods on the black market.

Barely one step ahead of the law, and owing money to the fearsome Spartaco, Arthur craves one last great find in the hope that it might offer some kind of redemption. 

Written by Marco Pettenello, Carmela Covino and Alice Rohrwacher, with Rohrwacher directing, La Chimera is a moody character study of a complex man who appears to be a walking patchwork of flaws, but who is revered, admired and even loved by those unfortunate enough to fall into his orbit.

There’s Flora (Isabella Rossellini), the aging matriarch who believes that Arthur still loves her dead daughter; Italia (Carol Duarte), Flora’s latest music student and live-in servant; and Pirro (Vincenzo Nemolato), the irrepressible head of the tombaroli who addresses Arthur as ‘Maestro’ for his ability to unearth the Etruscan tombs.

Rohrwacher’s story is a digressive, meandering affair, but O’Connor’s compelling performance ensures that all the disparate elements gel.