

Kysilkova, both extraordinarily empathetic and headstrong, found her interest turning from the stolen paintings to the stealer, and asked Nordland if she could paint his portrait. She tracked down one of them, Karl-Bertil Nordland, an intelligent and tattooed Norwegian who was so high at the time, he told her, that he couldn’t remember why he did it - or what he did with the paintings. Vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark But she was also interested in why anyone would steal those two paintings, and she wanted to meet the thieves. Kysilkova, who had moved to Oslo to be with her partner, was disheartened by the theft, especially because one of the paintings was personally significant to her.

And the way the paintings were stolen was odd: Rather than simply cutting the canvases from their frames, the two thieves removed each staple, in a way that seemed to indicate, as news broadcasts noted, that one or both of them were professionals. Kysilkova is a talented painter, mostly of people in emotionally charged moments, but she wasn’t particularly well-known at the time. On April 20, 2015, thieves made off with two paintings by the young Czech painter Barbora Kysilkova, who was exhibiting at Galleri Nobel in Oslo, Norway. And that’s true of some art theft as well paintings or sculptures are stolen so they can be sold on the black market, or used as a bargaining chip.īut sometimes art disappears for reasons that are difficult to understand. Ree is teaming up once again with collaborators from “The Painter and the Thief,” DOP Tore Vollan, editor Robert Stengård, composer Uno Helmersson and producer Ingvil Giske, who also produced “The Eclipse,” which is vying for the top Dox:Award in Copenhagen.Much thievery is committed with the aim of enriching somebody’s personal coffers, usually the thief’s. “If you’re not a gamer yourself it’s hard to totally understand how an avatar life can be a real life – and that is extremely important for so many young people who game: to show how an avatar life can be so extremely meaningful, both to themselves and to other people, that they have real friends in the game who have the same value to you as friends in real life,” she says, adding “Our experience from the pandemic means we are ready to hear this story right now because there have been a lot of people sitting inside gaming.” It was this community, says producer Ingvil Giske, that helped Mats gain his independence despite being in a wheelchair – one of the key messages of the film. Some of these friends from his gaming community, whom Ree has been traveling around Europe to meet, will appear in interviews in the film. And he was also this amazing friend, who helped his friends out in so many ways. He had specialized equipment that allowed him to game. Mats was as ill as it’s possible to be, he had 11 assistants, he could only move his fingers a bit and had all kinds of machines including a breathing machine to keep him alive.

In addition to the animation, “Ibelin” will also feature footage drawn from some 50 hours of home-made videos shot by Mats’ parents, as well as present day interviews with family and friends.įor the filmmaker, “this story is about the value of a life. The biggest challenge will be to condense nearly a decade of avatar life into one film, says Ree, who is currently working on a first animatic draft.

It’s quite extraordinary to have so much archival material that makes it possible to recreate his online life.” “They stored so much information – there are 42,000 forum posts! – and we are planning to take out models from the game, like the trees, the background, the buildings, the characters and the dialogue, and tell Mats’ avatar story.
