La Chimera is structured like a folk tale, complete with chapter breaks and a recurring musical motif—a twangy, hypnotic theme by the band Babou (featuring the director herself on vocals). It is a film that believes in magic without being naive about cruelty. The tombaroli are not punished by the law; they are punished by the earth. One sequence, involving a collapsed tunnel and a desperate hand reaching for air, is as terrifying as any horror film. The dead do not want to be found.
The title also refers to one of the most famous poems by the "maudit" Italian poet , included in his 1914 collection Canti Orfici . La Chimera
Rohrwacher rejects rigid, linear time structures. By mixing different film stocks (35mm, 16mm, and Super 8), she presents time as an overlapping, continuous cycle where the ancient dead and the living coexist seamlessly in the same landscape. La Chimera is structured like a folk tale,