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      The Thief

      R Released Aug 31, 1997 1h 37m Drama List
      88% Tomatometer 24 Reviews 88% Audience Score 500+ Ratings In 1946, a soldier fathers a child then dies before its birth. Jump to 1952: on a train, the child and his mother meet a handsome soldier who makes a play for her. She accepts. Posing as a married family, the soldier finds them a place to stay where he becomes everyone's favorite through his good looks and generosity. Meanwhile the widowed Russian with a young son falls for a soldier who turns out to have another identity. Read More Read Less
      The Thief

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      Critics Consensus

      As beautiful to look at as it is thought-provoking, The Thief interrogates Europe's past through the experiences of a family in crisis.

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      Critics Reviews

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      Globe and Mail Rated: 3/4 Apr 25, 2003 Full Review Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times It's a superb film in the classic style of screen storytelling, at once intimate and epic, possessed of lyrical beauty and suffused with that mixture of warmth, suffering and rueful humor so characteristic of Russian films. Feb 14, 2001 Full Review David Parkinson Empire Magazine [Stealing] the show is the eight-year-old Philipchuk, whose wide eyes register awe, puzzlement and misery with a conviction not seen since Salvatore Cascio in Cinema Paradiso. Rated: 4/5 Jan 1, 2000 Full Review Film Threat Rated: 3/5 Dec 6, 2005 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 3/5 Jul 5, 2005 Full Review Film Threat Rated: 3/5 Dec 8, 2002 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      andrey k Very powerful Russian movie that renders you brooding and lugubrious. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review flixster f 11 September, 2014 Simple, but uninteresting. 1/10. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie reminds me so much of Zvyagintsev's The Return. They both emphasize conflict with the father figure and the pressures of becoming a man. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member A fine film with an excellent storyline and outstanding acting. The story is not one a Hollywood production company would be likely to have any interest in filming. But it is a quite touching story of love and the ambiguities of love and family. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Unforgettable, heartbreaking, brilliant, perfect movie. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review dave j Monday, March 19, 2012 (1997) The Thief (In Russian with English subtitles) DRAMA A young precautious young boy, Sanya narrates his life while living in a part of war torn Russia involving his husbandless mother, Katya (Ekaterina Rednikova) hooking up with a thief Tolyan(Vladimir Mashkov) while in a train. As a result of falling for him, she tries to manipulate her son he is the father he never had. The more she falls for him, the more her son idolizes him for who is, even though he's a rotten person who exploits peoples generosity by stealing from them. Semantically, professional film critic Roger Ebert sees the corralization between the young boy and Stalin, others such as myself sees this as another repressive Russian film in terms of it's impact after Stalin's war. The film was nominated for an Oscar for 'Best Foreign film"! Low 3 out of 4 stars Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      The Thief

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis In 1946, a soldier fathers a child then dies before its birth. Jump to 1952: on a train, the child and his mother meet a handsome soldier who makes a play for her. She accepts. Posing as a married family, the soldier finds them a place to stay where he becomes everyone's favorite through his good looks and generosity. Meanwhile the widowed Russian with a young son falls for a soldier who turns out to have another identity.
      Director
      Pavel Chukhraj
      Producer
      Igor Tolstunov
      Screenwriter
      Pavel Chukhraj
      Distributor
      Stratosphere Entertainment
      Production Co
      Canal+
      Rating
      R
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      Russian
      Release Date (Theaters)
      Aug 31, 1997, Original
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jun 3, 2017
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $1.1M
      Runtime
      1h 37m
      Sound Mix
      Dolby SR, Surround