This film is part of Rentals
The Painter and the Thief
Winner of the Creative Storytelling Prize at Sundance, Benjamin Ree’s (Magnus, LFF 2016) expertly plotted, genre-blending documentary explores the personal repercussions of an extraordinary art heist.
Director: Benjamin Ree
Overview
The sheer audacity of the theft of artist Barbora Kysilkova’s enormous paintings from the windows of an Oslo gallery immediately piqued documentarian Benjamin Ree’s interest. Neither he, Kysilkova nor the perpetrators could have predicted what happened next. During the trial Kysilkova asked one of the accused why he took the paintings: Karl-Bertil Nordland answered ‘Because they were beautiful’. Deeply affected, Kysilkova contacted Nordland afterwards to request a rather unusual form of restorative justice: to paint his portrait. Both damaged outsiders and creative in their own ways, Kysilkova and Nordland found something in one another akin to a strange form of therapy. Blending elements of love story, mystery and biopic, with non-linear storytelling Ree crafts a beguiling take on the long roads back from (other people’s) bad choices.
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