[Film Review] The Painter and the Thief (2020)

A Norwegian documentary delving into an unconventional friendship between a struggling artist and a drug-addled thief, Benjamin Ree's second feature-length film THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF is an absorbing character study which does (or at least tries to do) a toothcomb of the two protagonists's mentalities, especially their unique platonic symbiosis in a world surrounded by gelid skepticism and interminable frustrations.

Barbora Kysilkova is a budding Czech painter, recovering from a very dangerous abusive relationship and now residing in Oslo with her supportive new boyfriend Øystein Stene. Her unorthodox acquaintance with Karl Bertil-Nordland, one of the two thieves who steal two paintings of hers from the gallery where they are exhibited, germinates something extraordinarily unexpected in its 3-year course, where Karl somehow becomes an inspo for her, whom she cares deeply and continuously and who becomes a subject of her subsequent creations.

Ree's film gingerly experiments with a dramaturgical approach to present the whole picture, something quite rare for an observational documentary. Audience can glean information and developments, which are not revealed chronologically, from both Barbora and Karl's perspectives, each complements another with felicity and cohesion. Karl's abrupt incommunicado is due to post-breakup depression, whereas when he is serving time in the prison (Norway’s prison facilities are truly make one envious), Barbora's uncharacteristic radio silence is revealed that she has her own demon to battle with. As a starving artist, she is strapped and her undue obsession with Karl is reckoned by Øystein, whose Scandinavian hard-hitting bluntness is alertly unsympathetic, as playing with fire, an irresponsible abandon of her artistic urge.

So the documentary's narrative angle seems to suggest that it starts with Barbora as the gracious savior to put the derailed life of Karl, an aimless, habitually wasted hophead, back on track through her affection, care and art, then when Karl, especially after a freaky car accident almost paralyses him for life, manages to pull himself together almost miraculously and indeed opens a new lease on his life, he, in turn, can spare some substantial help to facilitate her to move on from the status quo, as testified by the film's final shot: a hyperrealistic painting of Barbora and Karl together (with herself supplanting his ex-girlfriend, who poses for the original photo), their symbiosis becomes intimate and complete.

But truth is perhaps less rosier than what the film bullishly depicts, and this is where THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF pulls its punch. After Barbora, near the end of the film, belatedly informing Karl that, she has retrieved one of the two stolen paintings from another offender (the episode looks like she simply hits the jackpot!), the camera zooms in on Karl's face, awaits his reactions apart from the customary pleasantries, what Barbora, the filmmakers and audience really anticipate is “the elephant in the room”, will Karl change his version of the story that he was so trashed that day and has completely forgotten the whereabouts of another stolen painting once his accomplice comes clean? It is a self-evident “the plot is thickening” moment and the lack of which betrays the film's iffy ethics, it forgoes the pursuance of truth and opts to settle for a more life-affirming, non-threatening finale, only spiked with a hint of ambiguity, but for my money, Karl's dark side hasn't been burrowed to the frankest, Ree's film stumbles right on the homestretch and Barbora’s savior’s complex still leaves her as vulnerable as before.

referential entries: Tim Wardle’s THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS (2018, 6.6/10); Lucy Walker, Karen Harley and João Jardim’s WASTE LAND (2010, 7.6/10); Sarah Polley’s STORIES WE TELL (2012, 8.2/10).

English Title: The Painter and the Thief

Original Title: Kunstneren og tyven

Year: 2020

Country: Norway, USA

Language: English, Norwegian

Genre: Documentary

Director: Benjamin Ree

Music: Uno Helmersson

Cinematography: Kristoffer Kumar, Benjamin Ree

Editor: Robert Stengård

Cast:

Barbora Kysilkova

Karl Bertil-Nordland

Øystein Stene

Rating: 7.1/10