See these films: The Robber + Viva Riva! at the Brattle
Viva Riva!
A recent overlooked mini-masterpiece, Austrian
director Benjamin Heisenberg's The
Robber
(2010; screens at 3:30 and 7:30 pm) features an electrifying performance by Andreas
Lust as the real-life felon of the title, who supplements his compulsive bank
robbing with marathon running, two metaphors of existential futility that prove
not altogether complementary. It screens with Congo director Djo Munga's Viva Riva! (2010; screens at 5:30 and 9:30 pm),
another case study of criminal pathology, this one involving a cache of
smuggled gas fought over by rival gangsters in Kinshasha. That's at the Brattle
Theatre, 40 Brattle St,
Cambridge | $10; $8 students, seniors | 617.876.6837 or
brattlefilm.org.