The Robber

Bank robbery as an athletic challenge interested him early on, says director Benjamin Heisenberg in an interview. Johann Rettenberger (Andreas Lust) is the film’s main character and the bank robber. He is opaque, driven, masked and addicted to the next robbery, to the next chase. Based on the novel by Martin Prinz, which was inspired by a real case in Austria, Heisenberg tells the story of a man who can’t help but run: in prison, in the marathon, after the first robbery and after all the robberies that are to follow. After his acclaimed debut feature Sleeper, Heisenberg delivers an impressive blend of focused societal study and breathless chase sequences. His Johann Rettenberger is not a role model, is not psychoanalysed, not explained or made comprehensible.  Precisely because of this, Rettenberger becomes an electrifying enigma that you can’t stop watching. Here, Heisenberg pursues a persecuted man to the very end, switching genres and changing tempo, getting hearts thumping and showing how surprising and exciting the art of German film can be.

Image © Geyrhalterfilm, Miguel Dieterich