Synopsis
Jacek climbs into the taxi driven by Waldemar, tells him to drive to a remote location, then brutally strangles him, seemingly without motive.
A Short Film About Killing
1988 ‘Krótki film o zabijaniu’ Directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski
Cast
Mirosław Baka Krzysztof Globisz Jan Tesarz Zbigniew Zapasiewicz Barbara Dziekan Aleksander Bednarz Jerzy Zass Zdzisław Tobiasz Artur Barciś Krystyna Janda Olgierd Łukaszewicz Leonard Andrzejewski Wieslaw Bednarz Zbigniew Borek Ryszard W. Borsucki Władysław Byrdy Andrzej Gawroński Henryk Guzek Iwona Głębicka Elzbieta Helman Marzena Manteska Małgorzata Pieczyńska Zdzisław Rychter
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Alternative Titles
Du skal ikke slå ihjel, Breve film sull'uccidere, Tu ne tueras point, 살인에 관한 짧은 필름
Genres
Themes
Thrillers and murder mysteries Intense violence and sexual transgression Politics and human rights murder, crime, drama, gripping or victim cops, murder, thriller, detective or crime prison, jail, criminal, convicts or violence violence, shock, disturbing, brutal or graphic racism, african american, powerful, hatred or slavery Show All…
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In this film, Kieslowski is able to say more about human nature than most other directors could with a hundred films of their own.
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I have previously noted that a film with palpable influence on the real world exceeds in my estimation any film whose most notable impact to the wider world is merely on the realm of film itself; there is a step further that should be noted, that when a film's influence can be proven to save lives, actually prevent killing itself, on not an individual but an institutional level, that film becomes more akin to something holy. I certainly did not have this expectation going in; Kieslowski has previously left me interested but not moved, intrigued but not scarred.
This moved me and scarred me. This seems to have saved lives.
Filters and bleach turn the world into a ragged, broken,…
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Government be like: killing is bad, really really bad, and if you do it we’ll kill you.
9.2 / 10
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If this isn't Kafkaesque I don't know what is.
The lighting and framing are impeccable, more resembling a dark impressionist painting than a film.
Did not realize this was part of Dekalog, but it feels like a fitting introduction to Kieslowski nonetheless.
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Decades Project: 3/8 of the 80's
"Is it a good film?"
"No, it's boring."A Short Film About Killing may be short in its temporal duration, but it is incredibly long in its emotional effect. It is a despairingly brutal examination of humanity and the death penalty. It follows an itinerant young boy, a rude old taxi driver, and a newly appointed lawyer fresh from his exams. The boy kills the taxi driver, and the case for his life is taken by the lawyer.
The film works by focusing on the mundane reality of each character's life and contrasting it with the severe violence that erupts from it. The youth goes to see a movie; the taxi driver cleans his…
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The colors and cinematography give this film such a nasty, eerie, and almost dystopian feel, which is perfect for a film that highlights a vile side of humanity.
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Apparently Kieślowski is one of the few filmmakers that uses the piss color grading properly. This movie feels putrefied, like a wet trash bag leaking disgusting drops of human failure and ugliness and… well, piss. But the tasty type of piss. Idk what I’m saying but yeah I liked this a lot.
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"Thou shalt not kill."
A dark look at the human's psyche, A Short Film About Killing unleashes a debate on how moral is relative from the personal perspective of whoever handles it given any situation. Despite some random emotional fillers that distract the viewer from the original intentions of the film, Kieslowski accomplishes a disturbing sepia tone for highlighting relevant issues, among which are:
- The contradiction of a death sentence as a condemnation of murder.
- The events that are behind the curtain of each individual: his personal life background that we do not see.
- The implications of standardizing human actions and restricting them to what has been accepted as an agreeable consensus.It is easy to point…
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I'm usually okay with movies with an agenda, as long as it's for the good cause. However, In A Short Film About Killing, director Krzysztof Kieślowski, in his rather in-the-nose attempt to protest against capital punishment, mysteriously tried to pass off one of the most deplorable characters of his as the ultimate martyr and system crasher, only for the huge potentials of this movie to die down completely in its didactic last minutes.
Thankfully, A Short Film About Killing is style wise impeccable with its yellowish color palette and a stark cinematography, and has a somewhat tense, at times cerebral first half that chronicles the unknowingly intertwined lives of three Polish men whose existence is more symbolic than flesh and…
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10/10
Shoutout to @bloodmountain for the request.
Over the years, many films have changed the politics of their countries. Strawberry & Chocolate changed Cuba's perspective on gay rights. The Day After made Ronald Regan change his policy on nuclear warfare. A Short Film About Killing was instrumental in abolishing the death penalty in Poland.
Out of all the artsy fartsy directors I've watched, Krzysztof Kieslowski is the most direct and straightforward. His films have the feel of an Italian Neorealist film, but with an Avant-Garde approach to lighting and cinematography. In this film, it's very clear that Kieslowski is against the death penalty. He proves his point by making both the murder scene and the execution scene equally devastating.
During the…
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