La Chimera

Date: 17/09/2024 Times: 7:30 pm - 9:40 pm

Here’s another film that the Guardian sees as one of the best releases in the UK so far this year. The USA National Board of Review voted it one of the five best films of 2023. It is another unusual film in that there are elements of magic realism woven into a unique narrative. Most of all it is blessed with a charismatic and fascinating performance by Josh O’Connor, as a shambling, grubby Englishman called Arthur with unusual ways of locating Etruscan archaeological artefacts in the Tuscan countryside and a past to uncover at the same time.

Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For the band of tombaroli, thieves of ancient grave goods and archaeological wonders, the Chimera means redemption from work and the dream of easy wealth. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. To find her, Arthur challenges the invisible, searches everywhere, goes inside the earth, in search of the door to the afterlife of which myths speak. In an adventurous journey between the living and the dead, between forests and cities, between celebrations and solitudes, the intertwined destinies of these characters unfold, all in search of the Chimera.

Venue: William Loveless Hall