The Robbers

Ronia: The Robber's Daughter

December 1984 •Swedish

Ronia lives happily in her father's castle until she comes across a new playmate, Birk, in the nearby dark forest. The two explore the wilderness, braving dangerous Witchbirds and Rump-Gnomes. But when their families find out Birk and Ronia have been playing together, they forbid them to see each other again. Indeed, their fathers are competing robber chieftains and bitter enemies. Now the two spunky children must try to tear down the barriers that have kept their families apart for so long.

Curse of the Golden Flower

December 2006 •Chinese

During China's Tang dynasty the emperor has taken the princess of a neighboring province as his wife. She has borne him two sons and raised his eldest. Now his control over his dominion is complete, including the royal family itself.

No Good Deed

June 2002 •English

While doing a friend a favor and searching for a runaway teenager, a police detective stumbles upon a bizarre band of criminals about to pull off a bank robbery.

The River Wild

September 1994 •English

Gail and Tom Hartman are struggling to stay together and decide to take a white-water rafting holiday adventure in Montana for their son Roarke's 10th birthday, only to meet up with a pair of mysterious men whose desperation grows, turning their vacation into a nightmare.

Smoke

June 1995 •English

Writer Paul Benjamin is nearly hit by a bus when he leaves Auggie Wren's smoke shop. Stranger Rashid Cole saves his life, and soon middle-aged Paul tells homeless Rashid that he wouldn't mind a short-term housemate. Still grieving over his wife's murder, Paul is moved by both Rashid's quest to reconnect with his father and Auggie's discovery that a woman who might be his daughter is about to give birth.

House of Flying Daggers

August 2004 •Chinese

In 9th century China, a corrupt government wages war against a rebel army called the Flying Daggers. A romantic warrior breaks a beautiful rebel out of prison to help her rejoin her fellows, but things are not what they seem.

The Spirit

December 2008 •English

A Rookie cop named Denny Colt returns from the beyond as The Spirit, a hero whose mission is to fight against the bad forces from the shadows of Central City. The Octopus, who kills anyone unfortunate enough to see his face, has other plans; he is going to wipe out the entire city.

Mr. Fraud

May 2014 •Malayalam

Bhai Ji is a high-tech robber who changes his looks frequently. Disguised as jewelry experts, he and his team members hatch a plan to steal precious jewelry from a palace in Kerala.

Valley of Flowers

July 2006 •French

A Himalayan legend of a love struggling against the inevitability of death, an astonishing tale spanning from the early 19th century mountain existence, to hectic, bustling modern day Tokyo.

Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum

June 2017 •Malayalam

Prasad and Sreeja are a couple planning to set up a new life in Kasargod. On a bus journey they end up being robbed by a thief also named Prasad and this lands them up in a police station.

The Great Train Robbery

December 1903 •English

After the train station clerk is assaulted and left bound and gagged, then the departing train and its passengers robbed, a posse goes in hot pursuit of the fleeing bandits.

Mathias Kneißl

May 1971 •German

Inspired by the real-life events of Mathias Kneißl, a marginal man, son of poor farmers from Bavaria, in the late XIX century. Mathias stole from the rich to give to the poor, becoming a hero for the rural people and a popular social rebel. He was chased by the police until his unfortunate sentence.

Sunset Pass

July 1946 •English

A young outlaw gets involved with a gang of crooks. When he tells them he is breaking away, they threaten to pin a false murder charge on him. But he is rescued and reformed by his sister, and an undercover agent for the express company.

The Proud and Sad Life of Mathias Kneißl

October 1980 •German

The Robber Mathias Kneißl became a legend in Bavaria. The film is based on the historical criminal case and describes the last year of the rebel and folk hero. At the age of 23, he is released from prison, where he has served an unreasonably harsh six-year sentence. When this becomes known, he loses his job as a carpenter and now wants to emigrate to America with his girlfriend. He hopes to earn the money for the journey by committing crimes. In the process, he fatally wounds a gendarme. Despite this, Mathias Kneißl does not leave the area and stays in the Dachau hinterland. Only when his girlfriend betrays him is he able to find his hiding place. The farm was besieged by 300 police officers for days and then shot up. Kneißl was seriously injured and treated in a clinic in Munich before being beheaded in Augsburg in 1902.

Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts

May 1973 •German

Screen adaptation of Eichendorff's famous novella. A penniless drifter roams the land with his violin and preferably sings his songs to beautiful women. Two of his female admirers get him employed as a gardener at a castle. Yet he doesn't settle down for long, and moves on to his next temporary job as a customs officer. Finally, he travels to Italy where he joins the gang of Rinaldo Rinaldini and eventually meets the love of his life.

Räuber Kneißl

August 2008 •German

Even today, Mathias Kneißl (1875-1902) is considered a national hero in the collective memory of Bavaria. During his lifetime, he was the most wanted criminal in Bavaria and even Prince Regent Luitpold was reported daily on the hunt for the lawbreaker report. Again and again Kneißl's story has occupied the Bavarian artists: his life was retold in folk songs and murders, sung in ballads, filmed and treated in various plays. In his feature film version, the Bavarian filmmaker Marcus H. Rosenmüller relies on a rapid staging, opulent images and a moving love story.

Räuber und Gendarm

January 1978 •English

Zero Tolerance

October 1999 •Swedish

Johan is a two-fisted Gothenburg cop who finds himself in a shoot-out with jewel robbers. After the smoke has cleared, one robber, shot by his accomplice, and an innocent bystander, are dead. Three witnesses, including Helen, identify thug extraordinaire Leo Gaut as being the dead crook's trigger-happy colleague. Gaut soon threatens the three witnesses, and only Johan, the badge-wearing hero, can save them.

Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings

July 2018 •Chinese

Dee, the detective serving Chinese empress Wu Zetian, is called upon to investigate a series of strange events in Loyang, including the appearance of mysterious warriors wearing Chiyou ghost masks, foxes that speak human language and the pillar sculptures in the palace coming alive.

Prison Farm

June 1938 •English

Shirley Ross plays an innocent young girl convicted for complicity in a crime committed by her boy friend (Lloyd Nolan). The male crook is sentence to six months on a prison farm populated by both men and women (segregated, of course). Ross is also incarcerated, suffering the cruelties of the sadistic male and female guards (including J. Carroll Naish and future "Ma Kettle" Marjorie Main!)