The tourism industry provides joy and escape for many, but it can also push people working in it to the margins. In Petty Thieves, the feature directorial debut of Croatian filmmaker Mate Ugrin, which world premieres in the Proxima Competition of the 60th edition of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) on Sunday, July 5, we meet two of them.
”It’s summer, and the tourist season on the Adriatic is in full swing,” reads a synopsis of the movie. “Loner Rio earns extra money as a kitchen help at a local hotel, but he also commits minor thefts at the expense of foreign visitors. When the young worker Andrea learns about his thieving, the two come to an unusual agreement: they will steal together and share the profits. But this pragmatic alliance grows into an unexpected closeness.”
Press notes for Petty Thieves mention that sexual exploration and a love affair also add longing and tenderness to the themes explored in the movie. “The petty thefts are not simply acts of rebellion, but gestures of solidarity among people with little power,” they also highlight. “Beneath them lies a sense of alienation, born from unstable work and the difficulty of feeling at home in a place that seems to exist mainly for visitors.”
The cast is led by Gavrilo Jović, Tea Ljubešić, Snježana Sinovčić and Izudin Bajrović.
Director Ugrin has previously turned heads with his short films. His latest short, Everything Ahead (2021), premiered at the Sarajevo Film Festival, where it won the Heart of Sarajevo for the best short film. Ugrin also wrote the screenplay for and produced, with Daria Blažević, Petty Thieves, whose cinematographer is Ivan Marković. The editor is Jelena Maksimović. Cercamon is handling sales.
In the trailer for Petty Thieves, which THR can exclusively premiere below, we get a first sense of the very different worlds that the tourists and some of the locals in a village in central Istria inhabit. While some may have fun in the sea, Rio has all sorts of issues to contend with, particularly family troubles. The trailer also shows a glimpse of his first interaction with Andrea and serves up a healthy dose of melancholy.
You may not be able to dive into the sea. But nobody can steal the chance from you to dive into a sneak peek. So, check out the trailer for Petty Thieves below.
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