The film stars Josh O'Connor as a British looter who gets involved in an international network of stolen Etruscan artifacts during the 1980s.

[6] Arthur, a former British archaeologist, returns to Italy after being released from prison; he was arrested for stealing artifacts from tombs to sell to an art dealer named Spartaco.

He goes to visit his ex-girlfriend Beniamina's mother, Flora, at her family home, where he also meets her live-in maid and student, Italia.

Arthur feigns being sick so that his friends can scare away the farmer and return later in the night to excavate the Etruscan grave goods.

Arthur and his friends continue to rob tombs, collecting artifacts to sell, and bringing them to Spartaco who runs an illicit operation inside a veterinary clinic.

They find Spartaco on a boat, running an auction to sell the rest of the statue, which she estimates is of invaluable worth.

[9] Filming was done in February 2022 resuming in August 2022,[8] on locations in southern Tuscany (Montalcino, Asciano–Monte Antico railway, Monte Amiata Scalo, Torrenieri), northern Lazio (Tarquinia, Blera, San Lorenzo Nuovo, Civitavecchia) and Umbria (villa di Casa Pisana in Castel Giorgio), with additional filming in Switzerland.

[10][11][12][13][14] La chimera premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on 26 May 2023, where it was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or and received a nine-minute standing ovation.

The website's consensus reads: "If La Chimera is a wild, improbable pursuit, this marvelous and magical tale by Alice Rochrwacher is the pie in the sky to behold.

"[32] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 91 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

[33] In his review for Variety, following its premiere at Cannes, Guy Lodge called the film "marvelously supple and sinuous" and commended Rohrwacher's direction, the cinematography and the cast performances, particularly O'Connor's, of which he wrote: "Raffish and boyish at the same time—or switching between either mode as a cover for the other—O'Connor's deft, droll performance implies such possibilities without sentimentalizing them".

[34] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film five out of five stars, reporting that the film "totally occupies its own narrative space," depicting "a poignant sense of Italy as a treasure trove of past glories, a necropolitan culture of ancient excellence," through direction that is "exhilarating and celebratory in its utterly distinctive style.

[36][37][38] Alessandro De Simone of Ciak wrote that it is visible "an avowedly Pasolinian structure" in which the director inserts "a calculated anarchy in narrative and in staging," finding it overall "very simple, the chaos is orderly, fascinating and magical," although "it could have been more so.