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.
Born in 1981 in Fiesole, Italy, she studied in Turin and Lisbon. She wrote and performed music for the theatre before being drawn to the cinema, where she began working as a documentary editor. In 2006 she participated in the collective feature film ‘Checosamanca’ with the episode ‘La fiumara’, and her first feature, ‘Corpo Celeste’ (2011), made its world premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight (Cannes). In 2014 she won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival with ‘The Wonders’, before winning the award for best screenplay in 2018 with ‘Happy as Lazzaro’. In 2021 she presented at Cannes her documentary ‘Futura’. Additionally, she has directed many short films like ‘Omelia contadina’ (2020, best short film of the Meeting Point Section in Valladolid) or ‘The Pupils’ (2022, nominated for an Oscar). In 2023 she premiered ‘La Chimera’ at the Cannes Film Festival.