The Trio (1998)

THE TRIO relies mainly on presenting the viewer with the unexpected, or rather with the ordinary in an unexpected fashion. Zobel and his daughter Lizzie, connected with funfair and sideshow life, but essentially pickpockets by trade, live in a van with Zobel's ageing lover. He is finding his job as third man of the team too hard to deal with. A replacement is found in Rudolf, a young and attractive garage mechanic with a sideline in purse snatching, and the film charts the ups and downs of a whole series of relationships as both father and daughter vie for Rudolf's affections.
Family values are turned upside down, yet it is family values of the more ordinary kind which seem to triumph in the end, albeit linked to a decided lack of 'ordinary' social and moral values. There is no judgement in this story; it is presented merely as a series of unusual situations that unusual people, with normal emotions, find themselves in. Despite their lifestyle, their trade, and their seeming lack of social parameters, the characters are fairly likeable; Zobel (George) is a heartbroken middle aged man, looking for reassurance; Lizzie (Hain) is a gamine of the first order, and Rudolf (Eitner) is full of spirit.
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