08/11/24 – 19:30 The Venue
Italy 2023
Dir: Alice Rohrwacher
Cert: 15
133 mins
Starring: Josh O’Connor, Carol Duarte, Isabella Rossellini
This intriguing and enigmatic fi!m from the director of “Happy as Lazzaro”, also shown at L.F.S., centres on Arthur, a young, melancholic English archaeologist at large in rural Italy in the 1980s. Or rather that should be “disgraced archaeologist”, for when we first catch sight of Arthur on a train he has only recently been released from prison. It is gradually revealed that he is a tomb raider, working with local gangs who raid ancient Etruscan burial sites, selling on artefacts to professional traffickers. Relying on a divining rod and his “visions”, Arthur can locate hidden treasures, making him the urbane star among the ragged good-for-nothings he has fallen in with. However, Etruscan relics are not all that Arthur is searching for. His quest for his lost love Beniamina takes him to a remote mansion in Tuscany, presided over by her imperious mother. A beguiling film with a wonderful sense of place, peopled by a variety of extraordinary characters, and subtly imbued with the director’s trademark magic realism.
Trailer:
