"It's an art ... it's a game ... it's a crime." That's the tag line for Thieves, which opened in Spain last month. Starring the very popular Juan José Ballesta (7 Virgins) and the lovely María Ballesteros (Princesses), the film opened against Shrek 3 (AKA Shrek Tercero) and was admittedly swamped by the green ogre. Breaking down the numbers, though, Thieves had a decent per-screen average. The reaction has been mixed on the Spanish-language sites I visited, with comments ranging from "very good" to "slow and pretentious" to "I'm so tired of this actor!" (referring to Ballesta).

When Thieves debuted at the Malaga film festival earlier this year, it won a jury award, though Jonathan Holland of Variety was not entirely positive: "Bringing an unexpected lyricism to a subject more accustomed to in-your-face treatment, Jaime Marques Olarreaga's Thieves unfolds the details of its artful young dodger's troubled mind with craft and flair, but only intermittently grips the emotions." Still, he singled out Ballesta's performance and thought it could "steal into Spain-friendly offshore arthouses, with fest play guaranteed." That latter prediction has come true: Cineuropa reports that Thieves will compete for the Golden Leopard award at the Locarno (Switzerland) festival in August.

Still in his teens, Ballesta became a star thanks to his work in television. He was very compelling as a troubled kid trying to stay out of trouble in 7 Virgins, for which he was nominated for a Goya Award. In Thieves, he plays a young man who was abandoned by his mother as a child; the only thing she taught him was how to steal. He puts those skills to work as a pickpocket. When he meets a middle-class girl dabbling in crime, he offers to team up with her. The versatile Patrick Bauchau plays a junk shop owner. The trailer looks promising; time will tell how far these thieves travel.

If you're really into indie film, you might have heard of Lodge Kerrigan. He's the man behind 1994's Clean, Shaven, 1998's Claire Dolan and 2004's Keane, which Cinematical covered last Spring. The film starred Damian Lewis (Jonesy from Dreamcatcher) and Abigail Breslin, pre-Little Miss Sunshine. But there was another project a few years ago -- In God's Hands -- but you haven't seen that. The negative suffered severe damage before it was released, and the project was scrapped. However, it did bring about one of Hollywoods supercouples -- Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, who starred in the footage.

Now the writer/director is set for his next feature through Warner Independent Pictures -- an English-language remake of the French film Les Voleurs, which starred Catherine Deneuve and Daniel Auteuil. The original is about a dead man who is brought back home to his wife and son, and how his death effects those he had relationships with. Now under the English title, Thieves, which Kerrigan will both adapt and direct, the movie is described as a New Orleans story about "a police detective who is the black sheep of his family, a band of criminals." Um.. What? The original was an erotic thriller with intricate sexual relationships. Sure, there was an aborted heist, but was there really a whole family of criminals? If you've seen the original, please chime in. Either way, hopefully the project will run smoothly, and Kerrigan's very bad luck has come to an end.