Alice Rohrwacher Returns To Cannes For The Fourth Time And Premieres New Film

Alice Rohrwacher is familiar face when it comes to the Cannes Film Festival. She premiered her first film, Corpo Celeste, at Cannes in 2011. Then in 2014, she is known for gatecrashing the boys’ club with her second film, The Wonders. She returned to the festival in 2018 with Happy As Lazzaro, which won two awards, the Grand Prix and Best Screenplay. This year, she returns with her new film, La Chimera.

Rohrwacher revealed the film is about a group of graverobbers in Italy:

“We call them tombaroli in Italy, and they do it because some of the world’s most precious artifacts are hidden in Etruscan tombs. The title, La chimera, represents what we aim for and can never reach. For some, a chimera is easy money. For other people, it’s a secret goal that cannot be attained so easily.”

The cast includes Josh O’Connor as a British archeologist, Isabella Rossellini as an old lady ridden with the memory of her daughter, and Carol Duarte as a music student. 

When asked what inspired the story, Rohrwacher replied:

“Accounts of the archeological treasures that were illegally found at night in the woods, under the ground, fed my childhood. It’s somehow an epic narrative that is part of the territory I was born in and grew up in, and it’s part of the epic narrative of Italy, as with all the other countries that had a strong past civilization. But I do remember that in the ’80s, while I was growing up, men would go out on a treasure hunt at night to try and steal any artifacts that they could find. It was almost a stereotype. However, it fascinated me very much, and, indeed, I do think that my work as a filmmaker is somehow connected to archeology. My writing process has a connection with the process of the archeological in terms of findings and practice, so I thought it was a good idea to combine these two universes: filmmaking and archeology.”

Rohrwacher expresses her feelings towards the Cannes festival:

“It’s very difficult to describe. You’ll never get used to the emotions that you feel. It’s a mixture of fear, happiness, terror, joy, shame, embarrassment, pride — all of these together when it’s the first official screening in Cannes. It is really very, very difficult to describe, but I’m looking forward to it, and I cherish the emotions.”