The Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago, the Block Cinema and the Department of French and Italian at Northwestern University present a screening of the Italian movie La Chimera by Alice Rohrwacher (2023). This critically acclaimed drama was selected for the Palme d’Or prize at the 76th Cannes Film Festival and was named one of the top 5 international films of 2023 by the National Board of Review.
Blending folklore, dreamy scenarios and realism, Rohrwacher continues her trilogy dedicated to her Italian birthplace, this time bringing to the screen a story set in the 1980s about a group of tombaroli, or grave-robbers, who dig up precious Etruscan artifacts to sell them to private collectors.
Everyone has their own Chimera, something they strive to achieve but never quite manage to attain. For the band of tombaroli, the Chimera means the dream of easy wealth. For Arthur, our protagonist, the Chimera is the woman he lost, Beniamina. In order to find her, he challenges the invisible, delves into the depths of the earth – all to find the mythical entrance to the afterlife. In an adventurous journey between the living and the dead, between forests and cities, between celebrations and solitudes, the intertwined destinies of the protagonists unfold, all in search of their Chimera.
Genre: Drama
Year: 2023
Country: Italy/France/Switzerland
Duration: 134′
Language: Italian with English subtitles
Free with registration.
Doors open at 6:00pm