Robber, The

Based on the true story of a world class athlete turned criminal.

Based on the real-life story of one of Austria's most-wanted bank robbers, The Robber is a breathless thriller "as lean and taut as its marathon-winning title character." (LA Times).

Johann Rettenberger leads a double life as a championship runner and serial bank robber, sprinting between heists (and away from police cars) as many as three times a day. As portrayed in a riveting central performance by Andreas Lust (Munich), Rettenberger is an obsessive loner more concerned with his lap times than other human beings. Once he falls into a relationship with a social worker, Erika (Franziska Weisz), it becomes impossible to hide his crimes, and the violence he reserved for a robberies starts seeping into his daily life.

Director Benjamin Heisenberg has created a powerful, visceral study of a pathological adrenaline junkie. But The Robber, which is already slated for a Hollywood remake, is more than that: it's also an action movie filled with "turbocharged chase-and-escape sequences" (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) that will leave you gasping.