Krzysztof Kieślowski’s psychological crime thriller about a cold-blooded murder in 1980s Warsaw won him the Jury Prize at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival.
The story revolves around three characters: middle-aged misanthropic taxi driver Waldemar (Jan Tesarz), young and idealistic lawyer Piotr (Krzysztof Globisz), and nineteen-year-old drifter Jacek (Mirosław Baka), who has recently arrived in Warsaw from the countryside and aimlessly wanders the city causing trouble. The three men are connected by one murder investigation.
Originally shot as an episode of the miniseries The Decalogue that explored the ten Christian commandments and later expanded into a feature, A Short Film About Killing is Krzysztof Kieślowski’s interpretation of the biblical commandment “Thou shalt not kill.”
Instead of the investigation, the main focus is on the psychological realm: the feelings of the murderer and the people surrounding him. Conveying subjective perspectives of the characters in great detail, Kieślowski explores the nature of morality and guilt and questions of justice and class inequality.
The film will be screened in Polish with Russian subtitles.
A Short Film About Killing
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Poland, 1987. 84 min.
18+