The Neon documentary The Painter and the Thief begins with a surprising “meet cute.” After two paintings are stolen from artist Barbora Kysilkova in Oslo, Norway, she encounters one of the suspected thieves in court.
Instead of feeling angry at the accused, Karl-Bertil Nordland, he excites her compassion, and an unlikely friendship develops between them.Director Benjamin Ree thought that unusual scenario might make for a short film.
But his idea expanded once Kysilkova unveiled a portrait she had painted of Nordland.“Everything changed from the reaction Karl-Bertil had to that painting being shown to him and I thought we just have to continue filming these two people,” Ree recalls during his film’s panel at Deadline’s Contenders Documentary
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