The Thief

The Thief (Vor, 1997) is Pavel Chukhrai's crime drama, available to watch online on iFILM. The Soviet Union, autumn 1952. On a train, six-year-old Sanya and his young mother Katya meet a charming man in an officer's uniform named Tolyan — and the encounter remakes their lives.

Katya falls for him, and the three start living as a family, drifting from town to town. The boy attaches himself to his strong new "father" and copies everything he does. But Tolyan (Vladimir Mashkov) is no officer: the uniform is a disguise, and his real trade is simple and dangerous. He charms his way into communal apartments, cleans out the neighbours, and skips town — making Sanya keep quiet and watch. For a child raised without a real father, this man becomes an idol and a betrayal at once.

Chukhrai's film was up for the foreign-language Oscar and a Golden Globe, and it collected several prizes in Venice. Mashkov plays Tolyan so that charm and cruelty can't be pried apart, while young Misha Filipchuk carries half the picture in close-up. A hard, sorrowful story about fatherlessness and a postwar generation looking for someone to trust. Stream The Thief (1997) online on iFILM.