The hypnotic sound of the train hitting the tracks and a dream of a beautiful girl, that’s how we meet our protagonist Arthur (Josh O’Connor), a straight-out-of-prison Englishman heading into the depths of 1980s Tuscany.

Arthur has a gift for “finding what is lost,” and with the help of a mere dowsing rod is able to locate ancient tombs filled with Etruscan artifacts.

Along with his infamous troupe known as the tombaroli, Arthur embarks on a tomb-raiding spree. But he may not be chasing money or fame, but instead the girl from his dreams, his deceased love Beniamina (Yle Vianello).

Every frame of Italian director Alice Rorhwacher’s La Chimera (a chimera is an illusion or invention of the mind) is permeated with the mythical magic and dizziness of the scorching Italian sun. It manages to be fantastical, amusing, and romantic all at once.

Cinematographer Hélène Louvart efforts pay off in creating a landscape in which the viewer is lost in time yet fully immersed in the day-to-day life of the people of the town of Riparbella, creating an unique anachronistic atmosphere.

Arthur is an enigma or, at least, a contradiction. In his linen suit, he may be the head of his group of tomb raiders, but throughout the film we see that he is the one who might despise what he does the most.

It’s clear that Arthur is searching for something esoteric in those tombs, something that could guide him to the afterlife and back to his Beniamina. In this search he reconnects with Beniamina’s mother Flora (played by the legendary Isabella Rossellini) and her student-turned-maid Italia (Carol Duarte).

Their interactions add rich context to each other’s arcs, while stellar performances from the actors makes you sympathize instantly with the characters they’re portraying.

If one thing could be said about the La Chimera story, it is that it is poetically beautiful. It portrays love through the unusual lens of grave looting and consciousness of your own actions where wealth may not be the definition of happiness and status, while also taking the viewer on an opportunistic adventure.

La Chimera left me yearning for more, and I believe that in between all the milk-white sculptures in the robbed tombs and shacks made out of rusty metal plates hidden on the outskirts of Riparbella, Alice Rorhwacher manages to “estimate the inestimable” in the film’s sublime yet comforting ending