
Arthur is a grieving Englishman who returns to rural Italy after leaving prison. He joins a loose group of tomb raiders who dig up Etruscan graves and sell old objects to a black-market dealer. Arthur can sense hidden tombs, but he wants to find a way back to Beniamina, the woman he loved and lost. The story moves between villages, forests, old houses, and the world of the dead, with a dreamy, funny, and sad tone.
The film gives women who live outside normal homes and family rules a strong place in the story. Italia is a Brazilian mother who works in another woman’s house, hides her children, and later helps other women live in an empty train station. The story treats this shared home as a hopeful answer to poverty, unstable housing, and private property. The tomb raiders are poor workers, but their trade also shows how money turns old graves and shared history into goods for rich buyers.
Community feedback
Was our 62% Woke rating accurate?
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for La Chimera.
Woke representation / casting
The film centers a British lead and gives a major role to Italia, a Brazilian woman living in rural Italy. The film uses English, Italian, French, and Brazilian Portuguese. The director publicly framed this mix as part of a wider idea that foreigners can belong in Italy. The story gives each foreign identity a clear reason, so the casting signal is noticeable but limited.
30%
Woke political dialogue
The film uses a song to say that the law protects people who exploit workers. Characters also say that Italy would have less machismo if the Etruscans were still in charge. Italia asks whether an abandoned public station belongs to everyone or no one. These lines are brief, but they give class and gender ideas a clear voice.
30%
Identity-driven story themes
The story follows Italia, a Brazilian mother who has no stable home and hides her children while working for Flora. The film ends with Italia and other women taking over an abandoned station and building a shared home for their children. The story treats this women-led group as a hopeful answer to poverty, unstable housing, and private property. Arthur’s grief and the tomb-raiding adventure remain the main plot.
54%
Western institutional / cultural critique
The film presents the tomb raiders as poor people who work under buyers who turn old objects into money. A song says the law protects those who exploit workers. The story contrasts the black market with an abandoned station that women use as a shared home. The film treats money, private property, and male power as forces that damage community.
58%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. The film is an original story rather than an adaptation of established characters. The Etruscan past supplies the setting, but no known character or historical figure is changed.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Not present. No sustained anti-woke complaints were found in the reviewed coverage. The available reaction was mostly praise, curiosity, or complaints that the film was slow and difficult.
0%
Creator track record context
Alice Rohrwacher’s supplied creator score is 66/100. Her earlier films repeatedly examine poverty, labor, exploitation, and anti-capitalist themes. Several producers have supported socially engaged or culturally varied films, while many others have neutral public records. This context supports the film’s visible social critique.
62%
Production