The Robber

Austrian-German co-production, Der Räuber (The Robber, 2010), based on the real events, tells the story about the long-distance runner, who could've lived a decent life, having a loving and caring girlfriend, a solid place to stay, and an extraordinary talent for long-distance running that he could've easily made a good living on, but instead, he additionally specializes and excels in bank robbing, becoming an addict of such an unusual activity for no other obvious reason but for possible "beauty of a criminal campaign" and adrenaline rush received along. (He's hinted times and again that he couldn't have cared less about the stolen money itself, by jamming it into black rubbish plastic bags, as if he was going to trash it.) One of those life stories that you cannot help but get unpleasantly amazed with how all the reasonable prerequisites for a good life, though inexplicably, yet seemingly so unnecessarily, get flushed down the drain, apparently faithfully presented in the movie with understandable, ergo acceptable lack of intention to ease the answers to the hard whys.

Whenever the movie or a TV show is based on real events or people, its a slippery slope. There is that pesky,annoying difference between the movie and real life. In real life one encounters all kinds of people, makes little contact with them and continues his own way. In the movie, alas, we need much more. The true story based on the marathon runner with a penchant for robbing banks, sounds very original and interesting.The trouble is that Johannn, the lead character stays completely unknown to us by the end of the movie. We have no idea what makes him tick, what his motives are. His stony, stoic expression doesn't give away much. He keeps running and by the end of the movie, I felt the same, albeit running away from the TV set.

I have always found runners and cyclists to be a strange lot. Why would they devote hours of their time to sweating except to get some kind of a rush similar to drug addicts?

This film shows that life clearly, as Johann (Andreas Lust) gets out of prison and, rather than seek a life of fame and glory as a long distance runner and settle down with a woman who loves him, he pursues a life of crime. He is seeking the same or a higher rush that he gets from running.

He doesn't quit running, but uses it to aid in stealing. It's never about money, as we never see him spend any. He just stores thousands of Euros under his bed. He even maintains a blank look as Erika (Franziska Weisz) tries to get some emotion out of him. His life is wrapped up in the rush he gets from stealing.

Both primary actors gave very good performances in a film that had you on the edge as time ran out for Johann.

(If you want a summary of the film, read anybody else here.) Despite the activities shown, the film abounds in "still waters." The presentation of activities and the principal character sticks solely to the surface without any explanations. The film is enigmatic and compelling, perhaps even boring to some. Any people seeing this together will have much to discuss afterwards.

Anyone seeing it will come in knowing the robber is a runner since that is the basis for all the advertising. I'm no runner and usually not very interested but this was especially fascinating. The actor Lust portrays the title character in a beautifully minimalist performance and also gives the footwork a distinctive style. I don't know if it would win races but it sure works in this film.

Acting and all aspects of the filmmaking are excellent overall. Even the music for the end credits is good for emerging from the deep waters.

What things do ordinary people need in lives? Money, a house, a family, children, happiness, love I guess. But the main character of this film rejected all those things wanted by others (except him). Why? Because of his different identity. Life has another shape and sense in his mind (which is both the most interesting and strangest part in the film). The Robbers's activity seemed to be nonsense and destructive comparatively to common reasons. But The Robber is neither an adrenaline maniac nor a risk searcher. He is just a man, who can live only in running. In this case everything (even including his life) is not meaningless and the reality is closer to him than ever before. Although we are not told how Mr Rittenberger became such an emptied "stranger" (refer to Camus), I think that it is not as imроrtant line as thinking about his present life, and the director made us free to analyze this situation and problems in it. Behind the running and robbing (which are just images in my opinion) there are serious questions about the human being, human existence, the meaning of life, the person's identity etc., - the area for Q&A is really huge.

Andreas Lust lovely performed a state of mind of the main character, who stood at the existential threshold, observing the world from the outside . It is a truly European cinema with minimalistic cover but with the strong and thoughtful content inside.