Benjamin ReeThe Painter and the Thief, a Norwegian documentary about an unlikely bond between two individuals.
The film world premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Fest, where it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Creative Storytelling.
It was released in the US on May 22, 2020, by Neon.
The film follows Barbora Kysilkova, an artist, forming a friendship with Karl Bertil-Nordland, a man who stole her artwork.
Full of twists and turns like a fictional narrative, this docu is set in Oslo, in 2015, where Barbora Kysilkova, a Czech expat artist, has two of her hyperrealist paintings stolen from a gallery in broad daylight.
The paintings, worth €20,000, aren’t recovered, but the two thieves are caught. Yet when Barbora confronts one of them in court, she becomes intrigued.
Unlikely pair … Karl Bertil-Nordland and Barbora Kysilkova in The Painter and the Thief. Photograph: Barbora Kysilkova/AP
There’s an extraordinary moment when he sees Kysilkova’s portrait of him for the first time. Overwhelmed with emotion, he weeps, and while trembling, he says: “Finally, I have been seen.”
It took four years to shoot the docu, which might explain why it is so intimate and profound. “She sees me very well, but she forgets I can see her too,” says Nordland, while talking about Kysilkova’s attraction to his dark side; it is revealed that in the past, she had almost experienced a violent relationship.
Later in the docu, Kysilkova’s boyfriend Øystein joins in. In therapy sessions, he worries about her, describing her tendency to take emotional risks.
Among the feature novel’s ideas is the gender reversal, showing how a male muse inspires a female painter.
Cast
Barbara Kysilkova
Karl Bertil-Nordland
Øystein Stene
