# Vor (1997)

### reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten

    THE THIEF

     Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D.
     Stratosphere Entertainment
     Director: Pavel Chukhrai
     Writer: Pavel Chukhrai
     Cast: Vladimir Mashkov, Ekaterina Rednikova, Misha
    Philipchuk

It may not be better after all to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. The stunning Russian movie, "The Thief," swept the 1997 NIKA Awards (that's the Russian Oscars) and was the nominee of that country for a 1997 American Oscar. In it a young man recalls a series of incidents which occurred when he was six years old, an episode which transformed his existence and would leave him a lifetime of emotional scars. Set amid a backdrop of Russian towns shortly after World War 2 during the regime of Josef Stalin, "The Thief" focuses tightly on three people--an adorably expressive six year old boy, Sanya (Misha Philipchuk), his beautiful young mother Katya (Ekaterina Rednikova) and a dashing stranger who comes between them, Tolyan (Vladirimir Mashkov).

As a result of the war, twenty million Russian died while many who survived on the home front had to make do leading hardscrabble lives without a breadwinner in the home. Katya and Sanya are two such unfortunates, essentially homeless people who aimlessly ride the rails in 1952, just one year before Stalin's death. When a charismatic soldier, Tolyan, appears as a seatmate, Katya is immediately captivated by his looks and charm while seeing him as well as a future provider for her and her six-year-old child. For his part Sanya, who has no memory of a father who died before he was born, at first resents the attention the stranger draws from his mom but shortly grows to idolize this substitute dad. Save for a single flaw, Tolyan is the ideal lover and father. He teaches the boy how to fight while presenting the young woman with jewelry, a place to stay, and an outlet for her considerable passion. But the title character is a con artist--a thief who uses his ersatz family as a front to gain entry to other people's apartments in order to rob them blind.

"The Thief" is in the tradition of Jan Sverak's glorious 1996 movie "Kolya," about a bachelor who finds himself suddenly entrusted with the care of a precocious five-year-old boy and matures under the process. In the case of the Russian movie, the title character seems to change not at all while the impressionable blond boy takes in and is recast by everything that passes his line of vision and then some. But it is Katya who is put to the test, and director Pavel Chukhrai achingly evokes the conflict which torments her. She unearths her lover's true profession and is determined to leave the scoundrel, but finds that she is as unable to uproot herself as Samuel Beckett's iconic characters, Vladimir and Estragon.

Beautifully photographed by Vladimir Klimov and utilizing Victor Petrov's strikingly authentic set to resemble a railway car of the 1950s, "The Thief" provides us with a broad sweep of Russian everymen as well as its principal performers. The residents of the communal apartments are a motley crew of plump old landlady types, attractive ladies who might have come out of an American movie of the 40's, and mustachioed caricatures of men. Most possess so little opportunity for entertainment that they glory in a performance of the circus or in a concert of two silly-looking vocalists backed up by a small band. All the action of "The Thief" leads to an inevitable, unhappy payoff, one which sensitive viewers in the audience might wish had never occurred.

The Black Sea resort area in which Russian workers were given free vacations by the state compares favorably to petit bourgeois places in American and Europe, the small towns with their decaying monuments reflecting a culture whose entire budget seems to have gone into the war effort.

The picture is told from the point of view of young Sanya who is played by the then eight-year-old Misha Philipchuk, who was chosen in an open cast call from his school. He's the sort of kid everyone wishes he had, but beware! Cross him, and you'd better watch your back. A lovely lovely picture.

    Rated R.  Running time: 90 minutes.  (C) Harvey Karten
    1998

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