Directed by:
Krzysztof KieslowskiCinematography:
Sławomir IdziakComposer:
Zbigniew PreisnerCast:
Miroslaw Baka, Krzysztof Globisz, Jan Tesarz, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Barbara Dziekan, Aleksander Bednarz, Jerzy Zass, Zdzisław Tobiasz, Artur Barciś (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Despite occupying three different worlds within a decrepit modern Warsaw, three strangers unknowingly share a parallel destiny. In the shadows of a hellish housing project, a misanthropic cabby lavishes scorn on everyone and everything he sees. On a downtown sidewalk, a young drifter searches for himself in a shop window reflection while hiding his face from the police. Inside a privileged academic cloister, a would-be attorney defends his optimism in an oral bar exam. Through an appalling act of violence, cabby, drifter and lawyer are united in a shocking spectacle of wasted life that defies morality, spends upends empathy and makes martyrs of monsters. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (4)
The problem with the evaluation of Short Films probably lies in the inconsistency with the idea of retelling the story of the Ten Commandments in the modern sense of the Polish present of the 1980s. Is there anything beneficial in pointing out basic human weaknesses again? Or anything revealing and new? Here again, for example, we illustrate "thou shalt not kill" and that's all we've done.
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“Since the days of Cain and Abel, no punishment has cured or deterred the world from committing crimes." ‘Two Murders’ or ‘Crime and Punishment Polish-style’. One brutal, gratuitous, committed by a twenty-year-old boy. The second, a deterrent in the form of execution according to the law and so too society. Raw, powerful, disturbing and with real punch. The first half has such suggestive camerawork and atmosphere that only finds an equal in The Cremator. The second then doesn’t shy from introducing moral dilemma and the acting performances, already markedly above-average, reach a zenith. Kieslowski idealizes, damns and condemns nothing and nobody here. So why don’t I give it full marks? Well, right now it seems to me that there is a dead passage somewhere around the middle of the movie. However, considering that A Short Film About Killing is maturing inside me, it won’t take long and I still add another star.
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This is a very emotional film from Poland that will make you question what will happen next with every shot of the terrifying man. The truly disturbing fate of the murderer, who has no motive or about whom you can only speculate, dominates this depressive, gritty drama about guilt and judgment. Poles really know how to make films, every one of their subsequent films convinces me of that. The atmosphere is truly on the edge of horror, and you probably won't feel like laughing after watching it.
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So I have very little to fault about this film. It's not because it's brilliantly shot and totally unique, but it's a very powerful film in terms of ideas that will make you think. Moreover, it's really well-shot in terms of how the scenes are arranged and how it's all handled overall - the killings in all their forms here really churn your stomach, even though it's not particularly explicit.
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