SILVER

English expat archaeologist Arthur (Josh O'Connor) has gone to seed. Having relocated to Tuscany in the early 1980s, he fell in love with Beniamina, the daughter of aging local aristocrat Flora (Isabella Rossellini). But Beniamina has died, leaving Arthur a lost soul, though one with the gift of second sight: he can use a dousing rod to locate Etruscan tombs and their treasure hoards with uncanny precision. Along with a motley crew of graverobbers, Arthur takes part in finding and selling antiquities illegally to the mysterious local dealer Spartaco (Alba Rohrwacher), a money-making adventure for the carefree members of the gang, but just a way to keep booze and cigarettes in supply for the morose Arthur. Then he meets Italia (Carol Duarte), the live-in maid and sometime singing pupil of Flora, who offers the possibility of romance in the land of the living instead of Arthur's doom-laden obsession with the underworld. This funny, folkloric, romantic and thought-provoking film from Alice Rohrwacher (HAPPY AS LAZZARO, THE PUPILS, 2022 AFI European Union Film Showcase) may be her greatest yet. Official Selection, 2023 Cannes Film Festival. DIR/SCR Alice Rohrwacher; PROD Carlo Cresto-Dina. Italy/France/Switzerland, 2023, color, 130 min. In English and Italian with English subtitles. NOT RATED

No AFI Member passes accepted.