“Kelly Reichardt – one of the filmmakers shaping the backbone of contemporary American independent cinema – undertakes a radical deconstruction of the heist genre in The Mastermind. She sets a type characteristic of the New Hollywood era: the clumsy, hapless antihero, embodied by Josh O’Connor, against the historical backdrop of the 1970s. Against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the feminist movement, Reichardt explores not so much the crime itself as the fragile, often toxic aspects of masculinity.” (Programme curator Karolis Žukas)