Dealing with insurance is a nuisance, even a nightmare. For sweet, innocent Rajko Novak (Stane Tomazin), a freelancing shopping mall magician who broke his arm on the job, it turns into a gun-swinging, abduction-riddled catastrophe just to get a €3,000 compensation. Screening at the Festival of Slovenian Film, Gregor Andolšek's feature debut This Is a Robbery! unleashes an often funny, always tragic, but sometimes over-reaching hellfire of bureaucratic lunacy.

It all starts harmlessly enough when Rajko turns up for his appointment to collect the money. He had an accident while performing a trick and can’t work for another two months. As a loyal customer of the insurance company Tangente, this should be done with a glance and a wave-through. Andolšek doesn't even bother to show us the protagonist in question yet, and instead dwells on the black screen of his opening credits. But the voice-over of the conversation quickly turns sour and the first images pop up when the insurance agent tells him his papers are not in order. He didn’t bring a work order, but Rajko explains that he won't get one until the end of the month. A minor technicality, but the agent has him already marked down as “not entitled”.

In the bureaucratic hell that is our daily life, this equals a death sentence. Rajko, upset that he is being framed as a cheat, goes to his local branch and representative Marcel (Gregor Čušin) to try once more time. Unlike the cold-hearted response he got at headquarters, it is clear that Marcels feels for the poor Rajko and wants to help him, yet his method for doing so may be as unorthodox as the company he works for. When the duo can’t reach director Grabovšek (Uroš Smolej) to explain the situation, Marcel decides to stalk him out at his house. This desperate situation results in some altercations and suddenly, Marcel and Rajko have a kidnapping on their hands.

The unlikely trio, soon joined by the elusive but helpful Tangente customer Lutalica (Tijana Zimajić), don't simply offer comic relief in their on-the-run situation. Part of the humour stems from their impossibility, even at gunpoint, to make the capitalist bureaucratic mind understand what Rajko is asking for. The director swears he is willing to pay Rajko the €3,000 out of his own pocket right now if that could resolve the situation. But for Rajko, the director just doesn’t get it. “I want what I am entitled to,” Rajko explains.

The absurdity of an insurance wriggling out of responsibility, yet repeatedly offering customers low-value collectible bonus points is a tragicomic mirror Andolšek is holding up to society. When the director finally agrees to remove the note “not eligible” from Rajko’s case in the databank, they encounter hurdles in accessing a computer. There are rules, the branch manager, who they threaten with their gun as well, explains. Only he is allowed to use it. The absurd folly of holding on to a probably terribly paid job, and refusing to take new orders by the top boss himself because they conflict with some rule book, is the epitome of modern gig and hustle work culture.

Where Andolšek may go a bit overboard is when he raises the stakes once more. “Something is missing”, a detective (Matej Puc) with the economic crime division mumbles. He has his own interest in the director, suspecting he is a smaller fish in a bigger cartel. While not a far-fetched possibility, and with the final punchline in Rajko’s quest well delivered, the film does spend too little time building up the groundwork for this final act. Nevertheless, anyone who has had to experience the hassle of jumping through bureaucratic hoops will feel oddly at home.

This Is a Robbery! is produced by Slovenian outfit Temporama in coproduction with RTV Slovenija, A Atalanta, 001 and NuFrame. It is distributed in Slovenia by Gustav Film.