King of Thieves

Barbu is a boy of ten. He lives with his older sister Mimma in a poor Ukrainian village. The two of them perform circus tricks as amateurs. One day a man called Caruso comes to the village. He says he is a circus artist. He promises them a career in the West. The children are sold and sent on their way. Caruso smuggles them to Berlin. As soon as they arrive he separates the two of them. Barbu is taught to pick pockets. An older boy named Marcel is put with him. Barbu goes on believing he will one day be king of the circus. Slowly, though, he understands what the life he has fallen into really is. He learns that his sister has been forced into prostitution. He starts gathering money to buy her back. Lazar Ristovski and Iakov Kultiasov appear in the hundred and one minute film, a German, French, Slovak and Czech co-production Ivan Fíla finished in 2003.