TIFF 2020. The Painter and the Thief – a fake observational documentary
The Painter and the Thief, Norwegian-born director Benjamin Ree’s documentary and a Sundance hit (and winner of the Grand Jury Award), is a film that has a premise that is rather more suited to tabloid fiction (and, as we will see, a synonymous structure): artist Barbora Kysilkova spares Karel Bertil-Nordlan, the thief who has stolen her paintings, after he and his acolyte claim that they considered her works to be pretty. His undisguised innocence, doubled by a personality that seems to veer into a sort of macho eccentricity (he’s buckled up with tattoos and lawsuits), fascinates her, which, in turn, makes her want to paint it, to discover his stories. Under their apparent discrepancies (and her middle class sensibility for a delinquent with whom she has otherwise nothing to share), Ree goes deep, trying to annihilate the distances between the two – it’s Pygmalion’s myth, but this time around, it’s facing itself. Thus, it is clear that this transfer, which is observed over the course of three years, is bound to happen at one point, and Barbora will also, in turn, end up revealing her own shadows in front of the camera and of Bertil.
Journalist and film critic, with a master's degree in film critics. Collaborates with Scena9, Acoperișul de Sticlă, FILM and FILM Menu magazines. For Films in Frame, she brings the monthly top of films and writes the monthly editorial Panorama, published on a Thursday. In her spare time, she retires in the woods where she pictures other possible lives and flying foxes.
