Young Czech artist Barbora Kysilkova relocates from Berlin to Oslo to launch her career as a painter. In April of 2015, her two most valuable, large-format paintings are stolen - with care - in broad daylight from the windowfronts of Galleri Nobel in Oslo's city center. Desperate for answers about the theft of her paintings, Barbora is presented with an unusual opportunity to reach out to one of the men involved in the heist - Norwegian career criminal, Karl-'Bertil' Nordland... (Full plot summary below)
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Young Czech artist Barbora Kysilkova relocates from Berlin to Oslo to launch her career as a painter. In April of 2015, her two most valuable, large-format paintings are stolen - with care - in broad daylight from the windowfronts of Galleri Nobel in Oslo's city center. Desperate for answers about the theft of her paintings, Barbora is presented with an unusual opportunity to reach out to one of the men involved in the heist - Norwegian career criminal, Karl-'Bertil' Nordland. Filmmaker Benjamin Ree begins to document the story after Barbora unbelievably invites her thief to sit for a portrait, capturing the unlikely relationship that ensues as the equally damaged duo find common ground and form an inseparable bond through their mutual affinity for art.
Leave your thoughts about The Painter and the Thief.
| Boston GlobeTy BurrSo compelling is The Painter and the Thief — and ultimately so powerfully moving in its faith in human resilience — that you may not notice the illuminating ways in which Ree plays with form and viewpoint. The documentary won a special jury award for creative storytelling at the most recent Sundance Film Festival and it comes to streaming video as one of the year’s most affecting and subtly radical movie experiences. |
| The PlaylistChris BarsantiGiven his story’s curlicues and lack of overt judgment, Ree does not appear to be interested in a clear morality story about forgiveness or opposites coming together. However, The Painter and the Thief does leave room for a kind of redemption at its conclusion. |
| Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpThink better of art’s power, Ree’s filmmaking tells us, but especially think better of each other, too. |
| VoxAlissa WilkinsonBy the time the breathtaking final moment arrives, we have learned, a little better, how to really look at the world, as a lover of both beauty and the strange bits of ourselves that make us really human. |
| VarietyPeter DebrugeTo get the desired emotional reaction, The Painter and the Thief proves able to deceive in ways that are best discovered for yourself. It works: In a genius final stroke, Ree pulls back to reveal the entire canvas, putting key aspects of this unconventional portrait into startling new perspective. |
| Chicago TribuneKatie WalshIt is an almost startlingly intimate film, following this strange relationship between these two, as they go through the challenges of life. |
| The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzThe Painter and the Thief might be the best documentary of the year, if it could be fairly called a documentary. Instead, director Benjamin Ree’s film is more a mesmerizing, and potentially transgressive, investigation into just how far the documentary form can be torn apart and put back together – and whether the audience should accept such a wild reconfiguration. |
| LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenThe Painter and the Thief tells a remarkable story of artistic understanding, one which Rees gives a clever, two-part structure. |
| The Associated PressJake CoyleThrough twists and turns, The Painter and the Thief depicts not just the two-way transactional relationship between artist and subject, but the shared pain and mutual rehabilitation that can inspire and surround art making. |
| Slant MagazineChuck BowenThroughout the documentary, Benjamin Ree upsets conventions, offering a moving portrait of two lost souls. |
