Alice Rohrwacher’s first feature since the widely acclaimed Happy As Lazzaro five years ago is an exhilaratingly unpredictable, mysterious, rough and tumble tale of a disheveled English tomb raider living on the margins amongst a roisterous group of Italian bohemians: singers, smugglers, peasants and petty thieves. Even in this rum company Arthur (Josh O’Connor) is an odd duck, but he’s at the heart of their operations because he has the gift of divination: he sniffs out ancient Etruscan graves, and with them treasure troves of artifacts buried with the dead. Rohrwacher’s story (she wrote the original screenplay) could be called oblique and whimsical, but her movie is rooted in the rude, earthy tradition of Pasolini, the Tavianis and Roberto Rossellini (whose daughter Isabella has an extended cameo here as the mother of Arthur’s beloved, missing Beniamina); that is to say, it’s a vivid and authentic film of the land and the people who live on it, not to mention those who came before and are buried underneath.
Best Screenplay, Grand Prize of the Jury Cannes 2023
Presented by
Josh O’Connor, Isabella Rossellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Carol Duarte, Vincenzo Nemolato
Italy/France/Switzerland
2023
Special Presentations
In Italian and English with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Eli Bush, Jeff Deutchman, Alexandra Henochsberg, Alessio Lazzareschi, Manuela Melissano, Pierre-Francois Piet
Producer
Carlo Cresto-Dina
Screenwriter
Alice Rohrwacher
Cinematography
Hélène Louvart
Editor
Nelly Quettier
Production Design
Emita Frigato
Director
Alice Rohrwacher
Alice Rohrwacher was born in Fiesole and studied in Turin and Lisbon. She wrote and played music for the theater before being drawn to cinema, where she began working as a documentary film editor. Her first full-length film, Corpo Celeste (2011) premiered at Cannes in the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs. Her second film, The Wonders (2014) won the Grand Prix at Cannes. She was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Live Action Shorts category for Le pupille (2023).
Filmography: Corpo Celeste (2011); The Wonders (2014); Happy as Lazarro (2018)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Sansho the Bailiff
The third of the great Japanese masters (with Ozu and Kurosawa), Mizoguchi is a poet of suffering. There's plenty of that here in his exquisite telling of an ancient folktale about the enslavement of a woman and her two children.
Agatha's Almanac
Shot over six years on vibrant 16mm film, Agatha’s Almanac is an artful documentary portrait of filmmaker Amalie Atkin’s octogenarian aunt, who has fashioned herself an endearingly simple and self-sustaining lifestyle on her Manitoba farm.
Outrageous!
Two misfits find love and support in this cult classic and landmark for Canadian queer cinema. Determined to retain her freedom after being treated for schizophrenia, Liza grows equally committed to seeing Robin realize his potential as a drag performer.
Vancouver Opera Presents: Moulin Rouge!
Paris has never been gayer than in this headlong karaoke culture crash set in a poptastic 19th century Montmartre, where Ewan McGregor composes The Sound of Music and falls over his heels for Nicole Kidman's courtesan, Satine.
Love & Independence
A program of shorts that introduces daring new voices in Canadian cinema. Personal, playful, provocative, and self-financed, these films offer the freedom to express boldly through practices rooted in filmmaking among friends.
