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.
Arthur isn't a treasure hunter for the money. He is a lover searching for a lost line. He is looking for la chimera —the unattainable dream. For him, that dream is Beniamina, his lost love. Every stolen amphora, every carved sarcophagus he unearths is a failed attempt to dig his way back to her. La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher's (2023) is a dreamlike excavation of memory, grief, and the weight of history. Set in 1980s Tuscany, it follows Arthur (Josh O'Connor), a disheveled British archaeologist with a supernatural gift: he can "divine" the locations of ancient Etruscan tombs using a dowsing rod. The Quest for the Impossible Alice Rohrwacher shoots the film on 16mm film,