Vinci

A Leonardo hanging in a museum in Krakow is the target of two thieves. One is fresh out of prison, the other a retired master. On one side of the plan is a painter making forgeries, on the other a former friend of one thief who is now a policeman. Juliusz Machulski wrote and directed. It belongs to the later links in Poland's best-known tradition of heist comedy. The target is real: Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine. The painting counts as Poland's most valuable artwork, and the museum itself functions almost as a character in the film's economy. The humour is local. As much as the mechanics of the theft, what carries the film is the two men deceiving each other and dealing with Polish bureaucracy. Machulski had already made a cult item in the same genre with Vabank in the eighties; Vinci was read as a continuation of that line and did well at the box office. Who it is for: viewers who like light-toned heist films and eastern European humour. Who it is not for: anyone expecting realistic heist mechanics; the plan is left loose on purpose.