Urzad (1966)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Krzysztof Kieslowski

Genre:

Short

Plot:

The insane government bureaucracy at a state pension window.

Plot Keywords:

Papers | Clerk | Files | Office | Bureaucracy

Cast

Krzysztof Kowalewski

...

Priest

Also Known As:

The Office

Runtime:

5 min

Country:

Poland

Color:

Black and White

Company:

PWSTiF

Early student documentary

This is a film Kieslowski made in Lodz Film School. It has a modest concept:a matter-of-fact record of what happens in a government pensions office. The disdainful clerks deliberately brutalize the public to the point of sadistic cruelty for no more reason than to satisfy some dark something where their humanity should be. They all work for an agency which refuses to recognize court orders to give money to legitimate pensioners suggesting a method to this madness. Which comes first - does the organization corrupt its employees or does the demoralized sloth of the employees make a corrupt organization? One interesting thing about what is essentially a single chunk of a film is that there is no guarantee that the sound and the image are from simultaneous shooting but maybe very un-documentary like selected and assembled.