ONE of the better films out of the new Russia is Pavel Chukhrai’s The Thief. It has a Chekhovian atmosphere verging on Gorkian as it unblinkingly surveys conditions at the close of the Stalin era. Katya, a young war widow, and her six-year-old son, Sanya, are aimlessly riding a train in search of security. A dashing young officer, Tolyan, enters their compartment and promptly takes control of their lives.
Sanya, who fantasizes about the father he never knew, resents this stranger who whisks his mother off to the dining car, but is thrilled to be left in charge of his handgun. Wasting no time, Tolyan has rough intercourse with Katya on the platform between cars. The smitten Katya, who sees in Tolyan her future husband, quickly overcomes her initial resistance. Sanya, looking for her, unsettlingly experiences the primal scene.
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