The Thief (1997 film)

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The Thief
Directed by	Pavel Chukhrai
Written by	Pavel Chukhrai
Starring	Vladimir Mashkov Yekaterina Rednikova Misha Philipchuk
Release date(s)	1997
Running time	96 min.
Language	Russian
IMDb profile

The Thief (Russian: Вор; Vor) is a 1997 film written and directed by Pavel Chukhrai. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won the Nika Award for Best Picture and Best Directing. Also winner of the International Youth Jury's prize, the President of the Italian Senate's Gold Medal, and the UNICEF Award at the 1997 Venice Film Festival.

The film is about a young woman, Katya (Yekaterina Rednikova) and her son Sanya (Misha Philipchuk) who in 1946 meet a veteran Soviet soldier named Tolyan (Vladimir Mashkov). Katya falls in love with Tolyan, who turns out to be a thief, but who also becomes a father figure to Sanya.

[edit] Plot

A boy and his mother try to get by in the Soviet Union of the 1950s. The boy's father is a soldier who died in the war before his birth. Jump to 1952: Katya and her son Sanya are poor and desperate. On a train, they meet a handsome, rakish soldier, Tolyan, who makes a play for Katya. She accepts. Tolyan pretends to be Katya's husband and uses his credentials as a war veteran to get an apartment without paying money in advance and becomes everyone's favorite through his good looks and generosity. He turns out to be a brutal and abusive man. He teaches Sanya his ruthless code of manhood while rolling razor blades in his mouth with his tongue. Tolyan also brags to the boy that he is a secret son of Stalin. After several weeks of mooching off and seducing the other tenants, Tolyan buys them all dinner and tickets to a circus. During the performance he sneaks back to the building and robs everyone. Katya is suspicious that he is carrying on with a female tenant he has been flirting with, and she returns to catch him in his burglary. He tells her she can escape with him or stay behind, but she has no skills and no prospect of work, so she takes Sanya and follows him. Katya becomes a part of his con game as they move from city to city, working the same schemes.

[edit] External links

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