The Robber: Rob. Run. Repeat
Published 7:00 am Tuesday, May 3, 2011
What makes Johann run—and rob? Benjamin Heisenberg’s second feature is as taut, lean, and fleet as its title character, played by Andreas Lust and based on the real-life Johann Kastenberger, who was both Austria’s most-wanted bank robber of the 1980s and a champion marathoner. Writing the script with Martin Prinz, who adapted his own 2005 novel about the notorious criminal, Heisenberg forgoes psychological explanation, structuring his film as a series of adrenaline spikes. Johann is already in motion—and marked as a lawbreaker—when The Robber begins, doing laps around a prison yard. Once released, he steals a car and dons the gray trench coat and rubber mask that will become his uniform as he sticks up bank after bank. When not stuffing wads of Euros into a black duffel bag, Johann is in training, building the speed and stamina needed to set a new national record in the Vienna marathon. Heisenberg paces his film like a strenuous yet exhilarating session of interval training; Johann’s criminal activities and his sprinting from the polizei reach maximum cardiovascular exertion when he robs two banks within five minutes. Following these high-intensity bursts, the scenes of the kinetic antihero’s physical conditioning become almost trancelike. Against interpretation, Heisenberg has nonetheless created a nimble character study of a fiercely guarded loner on the run.
