| Romance of a Horsethief | |
| Director: | Abraham Polonsky |
| Based On: | novel by Joseph Opatoshu |
| Starring: | Yul Brynner Eli Wallach |
| Music: | Mort Shuman |
| Cinematography: | Piero Portalupi |
| Editing: | Kevin Connor |
| Producer: | Gene Gutowski |
| Studio: | Jadran Film International Film Company Prima Cinematografica |
| Distributor: | Allied Artists |
| Runtime: | 101 minutes |
| Country: | France Italy Yugoslavia |
| Language: | English |
Romance of a Horsethief (fr|Le roman d'un voleur de chevaux; it|Il romanzo di un ladro di cavalli; sh|Romansa konjokradice) is a 1971 French-Italian-Yugoslav adventure film directed by Abraham Polonsky. It is loosely based on the 1917 novel with the same name by Joseph Opatoshu.[1] [2]
In Polish Russia, Stoloff, a Cossack in exile has gained control over a Jewish village. The villagers live by horse-thievery and under the leadership of Kifke. Stoloff's regime is tolerated until he commandeers the village's horses for the Russian army. Naomi has been away in France and gotten ideas of a revolution and inspires the town to resist. This gets Naomi into deep trouble, from which only Kifke and his compatriot Zanvil can rescue her. Zanvil is highly motivated since he is in love with Naomi.
Filming began in July 1970 in Yugoslavia.[3] Polonsky called the film "a fairytale, pretending to affect an older style but in fact the contrary."[4]
The Los Angeles Times called the film "impressive... a rollicking folk tale."[5]