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The Bike Thief

Play trailer The Bike Thief 2020 1h 19m Drama Foreign Play Trailer Watchlist
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86% Tomatometer 7 Reviews Popcornmeter 0 Ratings
To the Rider his moped is everything. As a pizza delivery driver it is his livelihood. As a breadline straddling, immigrant father it is his family's anchor. It takes his wife to work. It gets his daughter to school. So when one night the moped is stolen, his world collapses.He has to get back his bike – or replace it – in whatever way possible, before his next shifts starts. If he fails, he won't just lose his job, he will lose it all. He tries to ask the few familiar faces for help in this unfamiliar, disorienting city. However, as he runs out of time and his options are wearing thin, his moral compass begins to crack and he grows more and more willing to forgo his conscience in order to save himself and his family.

Critics Reviews

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Danny Leigh Financial Times As it was with De Sica, the simplicity of the story is at once poetic and deceptive. The rest is not just raw human drama but vast moral complexity. Rated: 4/5 May 5, 2021 Full Review Phuong Le Guardian The refusal to either romanticise or overly dramatise it makes for especially poignant results and the clear-eyed, unsentimental approach renders the characters' turmoil even more tragic. Rated: 3/5 Apr 30, 2021 Full Review Joanne Laurier World Socialist Web Site The camera in The Bike Thief stays focused on the grim geography of working class life, its narrow confines and regimented rhythms. May 12, 2021 Full Review David Parkinson Radio Times While the story and imagery are nowhere near as sophisticated as Sica's, the film's compelling performances make this a ride worth taking. Rated: 3/5 May 7, 2021 Full Review Kaleem Aftab Cineuropa The ending is choppy and abrupt, and Chambers doesn't quite manage to make work the central moral conundrum that life can force us to do crazy stuff to protect our family. It doesn't feel all that pertinent as a tale of Brexit Britain. Nov 14, 2020 Full Review Sarah Ward Screen International Writer/director Matt Chambers has astutely turned his debut feature into an involving story about surviving in an unforgiving world amid the complexities of the current immigrant experience. Nov 3, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews
The Bike Thief

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Movie Info

Synopsis To the Rider his moped is everything. As a pizza delivery driver it is his livelihood. As a breadline straddling, immigrant father it is his family's anchor. It takes his wife to work. It gets his daughter to school. So when one night the moped is stolen, his world collapses.He has to get back his bike – or replace it – in whatever way possible, before his next shifts starts. If he fails, he won't just lose his job, he will lose it all. He tries to ask the few familiar faces for help in this unfamiliar, disorienting city. However, as he runs out of time and his options are wearing thin, his moral compass begins to crack and he grows more and more willing to forgo his conscience in order to save himself and his family.
Director
Matt Chambers
Genre
Drama, Foreign
Original Language
English
Runtime
1h 19m