The Thief = Bop = Vor

A young widower and her son travel aboard a crowded train in post-war Russia. A chance encounter with a soldier changes their lives irrevocably, as the widower takes the soldier as her lover, who insists that her son, Sanja, call him daddy. Sanja is initially tormented by conflicting emotions, as he still dreams of his soldier father who died before Sanya was born. He is also drawn to the tough, cynical, patriotic, yet ultimately thieving “new” father. To confound matters Sanja is driven by an Oedipal force, and resents the time that his mother’s new lover has taken from him. Sanya, his mother, and new lover lead a dangerous existence, with the lover, Tolyan gaining the trust of his comrades, stealing from them, then disappearing and repeating the deception elsewhere. Sanja’s mother decides to leave their life of crime but Tolyan is captured and imprisoned as they prepare to leave. As his mother grows gravely ill, Sanya realises he is alone in the world and his loyalties shift as Tolyan becomes the father he now pursues. Cast includes Vladimir Mashkov, Yekaterina Rednikova and Misha Philipchuk. In Russian with English sub titles.