.
British filmmaker Matt Chambers’ feature debut
The Bike Thief is a harrowing drama about an impoverished immigrant family living in London. In its title and subject matter, the movie pays deliberate and admiring tribute to the famed 1948 Italian neorealist film,
Bicycle Thieves (
The Bicycle Thief ), directed by Vittorio De Sica (1902-1974).
The Bike Thief
There proves to be some genuine substance to the artistic and social connection the new film has to the original classic to the youthful director’s credit.
As in the earlier Italian movie, the narrative in
The Bike Thief centers on a means of transportation vital to the survival of a worker and his family. Through the unfolding of its story, the movie offers a scathing commentary on the whole social structure.