Aperitivo Italiano & Opening Night Film

Includes Aperitivo Italiano from 6:00 to 7:00 PM: Drinks, Appetizers and Great Company!

MINNESOTA PREMIERE

About the film

La Chimera is the story of the ups and downs of a gang of tombaroli, or grave-robbers, violators of Etruscan tombs and peddlers of antiques to local fences. It is set in the 1980s when anyone who decided to become a tombarolo – crossing the tacit dividing line between the sacred and the violable – did so to turn the past around, to become new, something else. The tombaroli were, unquestionably, strong, youthful – and damned. The naivety of the people who had buried the stuff made them laugh. Indeed, they wondered how it was actually possible for a people to leave all that wealth underground for souls...

But never mind souls – they wanted to enjoy the gold themselves, and how! The Etruscans dedicated their art, their craftsmanship and their resources to the invisible. For the grave-robbers, the invisible simply didn’t exist. According to the cantastorie, or ballad-singer, we meet in the film, “The tombarolo is a drop in the ocean”. And it happens to be true.

La Chimera addresses one of the broadest questions to affect Italy and the many other countries that are cradles of ancient civilisations in the 20th century – especially since the war. Namely the ancient art market and the illicit trading of archaeological treasures in particular.

With a stellar cast featuring Isabella Rossellini, Alba Rohrwacher and Josh O’Connor (Emmy and Golden Globe award winner for his portrayal of young prince Charles in The Crown, and starring aside Zendaya in Challengers, Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming feature), La Chimera was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival in 2023 and was presented at the New York Film Festival in 2023.

DIRECTOR

Alice Rohrwacher is an Italian Director and Writer. She wrote and played music for the theater before being drawn to cinema, where she began working as a documentary film editor. In 2011 she directed her first full-length film, Corpo Celeste, which premiered at Cannes in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, and screened at the Sundance, New York, London, Rio and Tokyo festivals. Her second film, Le Meraviglie won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2014, while her third Lazzaro Felice received the Best Screenplay award in Cannes, as well as great international acclaim. In 2016 she directed La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi at the Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia. In 2020 she directed the third and fourth episodes in the acclaimed Rai-HBO TV series My Brilliant Friend - The Story of a New Name, adapted from the novels by Elena Ferrante. In 2023 she was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Live Action Shorts category for Le Pupille, co-produced by Alfonso Cuarón for Disney.

SPONSORS