Krótki film o zabijaniu (1988)

Director:

Krzysztof Kieslowski

Writers:

Krzysztof Kieslowski (writer)
Krzysztof Piesiewicz (writer)

Release Date:

26 October 1988 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

The plot couldn't be simpler or its attack on capital punishment (and the act of killing in general) more direct - a senseless...

Plot Keywords:

Hanged Cat | Death | Critically Acclaimed | Violence | Violent Movie

Awards:

7 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Miroslaw Baka	...	Jacek Lazar
Krzysztof Globisz	...	Piotr Balicki (Advocate)
Jan Tesarz	...	Waldemar Rekowski (Taxi driver)
Zbigniew Zapasiewicz	...	Przewodniczacy Komisji
Barbara Dziekan	...	Bileterka
Aleksander Bednarz	...	Kat
Jerzy Zass	...	Naczelnik
Zdzislaw Tobiasz	...	Judge
Artur Barcis	...	Young Man
Krystyna Janda	...	Dorota
Olgierd Lukaszewicz	...	Andrzej
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Leonard Andrzejewski
Wieslaw Bednarz
Zbigniew Borek
Ryszard W. Borsucki
Wladyslaw Byrdy
Andrzej Gawronski
Iwona Glebicka
Henryk Guzek
Elzbieta Helman	...	Beatka
Boguslaw Hubicki
N. Kowalczykowa
Henryk Lapinski
Krzysztof Luft
Maciej Maciejewski	...	Prosecutor
Marzena Manteska
Borys Marynowski
Andrzej Mastalerz
Marlena Miarczynska
Jolanta Mielech
Bogdan Niewinowski
Malgorzata Pieczynska
Lech Pietrasz
Zbigniew Plato
Zdzislaw Rychter
Krzysztof Stelmaszyk
Cezary Switkowski
Maciej Szary
Alicja Wolska

Also Known As:

A Short Film About Killing (International: English title)

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

Poland

Language:

Polish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA (original rating) | Australia:M (DVD rating) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:18 | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Krakowskie Przedmiescie, Warsaw, Poland

Company:

Zespol Filmowy "Tor"

Trivia:

Kieslowski's graphic depiction of the effects of violence so shook up the Polish authorities that they declared a five year moratorium on capital punishment.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Man yan (2004)

Thou shalt not kill

Dead cats, dead rats, rusting vehicles and dilapidated buildings. Kieslowski begins his film with morbid bleakness. Everything about his film is dark, from the subject matter to the cinematography (he used over 600 green filters to lend the picture a gloomy look). Often entire chunks of the frame are smudged in blackness, the director using murky filters to link his characters to death and doom.

Twenty year old Jacek is a seemingly normal young man. We watch as he goes through his day, wandering around town but rarely interacting with anyone. Gradually we sense that something is wrong with him. He bumps violently into a group of people, he throws a rock off a bridge, he plays with a piece of rope. Gradually we realise that this is a man on the edge. Then suddenly, without warning, Jacek murders a cab driver. The murder is apparently the longest in film history, lasting over 7 minutes.

Jacek is captured by the police and tried. An idealistic lawyer named Piotr is tasked with defending him. But Piotr fails and Jacek is given the death sentence. Before the execution, the young criminal spends some time in a cell with his attorney, telling fragments of his life. He paints a miserable picture, but we never quite sympathise with him. Moments later he is sentenced to death. We watch for long minutes (5mins) as the state kills Jacek.

Kieslowski's intent is to contrast and compare the two murders in the film. Both actions are brutal, senseless and barbaric, he says. It's wrong to kill, no matter why you kill, no matter whom you kill and no matter who does the killing. Death is the highest form of violence and capital punishment is an infliction of death.

As a film about capital punishment, the film feels shallow. As a film about what makes a killer, the film is empty. This material was covered far better in Dekalog, and doesn't seem to warrant such a long running time. A better film would have had far greater scope, examining what made Jacek a killer and then forcing the audience to examine his murderous actions with regards to the choices or options presented to him. Cause and effect. What are the causes that affected Jacek? Kieslowski takes the easy route of making the cab driver a nasty buffoon, thereby making Jacek's actions less despicable. A braver artist would have delved into Jacek's life and forced us to empathise and understand him. Thus, when the murder comes, we see it as a result of something else. It ceases to become a senseless action and starts becoming something caused by something else. Once we know that "something else", the film forces it's audience to pose solutions. As it is now, the film is just empty moralising.

How can we help people like Jacek more effectively? How can we prevent these causes? Is a percentage of society simply doomed, by circumstance, to "malfunction"? Do we treat this malfunction by killing them and ridding ourselves of the problem? The film asks no questions and doesn't bother to delve deeply into anything.

7/10 A slow and bleak film, which worked much better as a 1 hour segment in Dekalog. The film is ripe with symbolism (it begins with a dead rat, then a dead cat, then a dog, then a man, then a murderer, then a state lawyer- ie cycle of killers, preys and predators) and has some nice brooding cinematography, but there simply isn't enough depth to sustain the exercise and slow pace. Worth one viewing.