Directed by Benjamin Ree

Most documentary features share its subject’s life, their experience and/or story well after the particular event being chronicled has occurred. In The Painter and the Thief, director Benjamin Ree discovered the unique situation that unpredictably progresses and gained consent to film from very early on. He, nor anyone else involved in this production, had any idea what would eventuate or where this curiously bizarre story might land. As such, you can be forgiven for wondering, or even believing, if this is a fictionalised movie disguised as a documentary!

It all begins when Czech-born painter Barbora Kysilkova has two of her most important and valuable pieces of artwork stolen from Gallery Nobel in Oslo in 2015. The entire burglary is captured on CCTV and Norwegian police catch the thieves within a matter of days. The paintings, however, are nowhere to be seen. Soon enough, the case winds up in court with one of the thieves, Karl Bertil-Nordlund present in the courtroom. Barbora decides to attend, adopting a very unconventional approach when face to face with the perpetrator.

The Painter and the Thief, a World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award Winner for Creative Storytelling at the Sundance Film Festival, was filmed from 2016 to 2019 and started out as a short documentary before becoming the deeply personal feature-length one it is today. It certainly is quite a remarkable story that may not sustain the early momentum formed throughout, but definitely provides viewers with the same immensely curious and unpredictable experience the filmmakers themselves had, and powerfully illustrates the importance and impact resulting from certain ways in which we conduct ourselves. I’d love to be more specific and elaborate further on this, but I’m afraid doing so would inevitably spoil the nature of that aforementioned unconventional approach Barbora takes in the courtroom.

Nevertheless, these facets of the documentary make it simultaneously exciting and enriching to watch. Furthermore, the format that Benjamin Ree adopts for telling this story is indeed creative and something we’ve rarely, perhaps even never seen before in a documentary. Finally, there is one absolutely priceless and gob-smacking scene that is the very catalyst for this documentary going from short to feature length and will be a cinema highlight for me at year’s end. You’ll know it when you see it!

The Painter and the Thief is showing in cinemas across Australia from March 25.

Moviedoc thanks Madman for providing a screener link to watch and review this film.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc
Follow on Twitter – Moviedoc / LIKE on Facebook – @moviedoc13

©