One of the most intimate and unlikely documentaries you’re ever likely to see, The Painter and the Thief eavesdrops on the strange, evolving relationship between Czech artist Barbora Kysilkova and Norwegian career criminal Karl-Bertil Nordland, who helped steal two of Kysilkova’s paintings from a gallery in Oslo.
Norwegian filmmaker Benjamin Ree stumbled across the story just after the pair met, when the painter invited the thief to pose for a portrait. Ree looks on — with remarkable access — as their lives become intertwined in surprising ways best left for viewers of the film to discover.
Ree toys with chronology, going backward and forward to add layers to his story — not unlike Kysilkova’s hyperrealistic painting technique. Also like her paintings, the documentary is both beautiful and disturbing, with difficult subjects depicted but left on the surface. The film (which is mostly in English) leaves many factual gaps, but it’s an emotional portrait more than an investigation, and it has plenty of twists and revelations. Ree began the project out of his obsession with art thefts, but he ends it by giving us a glimpse of how art can capture complex emotional transactions in a visual language that needs no translation.
Available to rent starting May 22 via fineartstheatre.com
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