The film is not easy to watch, being the story of a young man who kills a taxi driver and is caught, brought to trial, condemned to death and executed. Both deaths are dreadful and depicted in details
A Short Film About Killing, Krzysztof Kieslowski's powerful examination of the nature of murder, was a stunning success at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, taking home the Jury prize. In the same year, the film also captured Europe's coveted Felix award. An extended version of Decalogue 5, A Short Film About Killing was one of two features to spring from Kieslowski's ten-part television drama about applying the Ten Commandments to modern-day life (The other being A Short Film About Love ).
There are two murders in A Short Film About Killing: the killing of the cab driver, which runs slightly over seven minutes in length (may the longest murder in the history of cinema) and the execution of Jacek, a scene that lasts about five minutes and Kieslowski doesn't spare the audience any details.
Jacek (Miroslaw Baka) climbs into the taxi driven by Waldemar (Jan Tesarz), tells him to drive to a remote location, then brutally strangles him seemingly without motive. He's soon arrested , with his only ally his idealist defense attorney , Piotr (Krzysztof Globisz) for whom this is the first case.
Defending his client, Piotr throws himself into the trial, get emotionally connected to Jacek but but the outcome is never in doubt.
"There are moments when you feel everything is possible" Piotr says to his girlfriend who he brought to cafe to celebrate passing the final exam and officially becoming lawyer certainly seems to be one of those moments for young Piotor.
In the same cafe at the same time Jacek is eating the cake waiting for the police officer from the street to go away so he can go get available taxi driver for ride in order to kill him. But there was nothing to be done there nor later during the trial , the destiny of the young Jacek seems to be written deep in the stone , as well as the one of the grumpy taxi driver Waldemar who would be alive had he picked the passenger he did not like few moments earlier.
On the other note the character of taxi driver Waldemar is quite interestingly depicted in this story and his love for "big dogs" and hate for the "small ones" is certainly something I can relate to .
THE DECALOGUE
Initially made for Polish television with the idea of selecting ten different filmmakers to direct each one-hour episode—two of them to be expanded into theatrical features—Kieslowski and Piesiewicz began to “suspect intuitively that Decalogue could be marketed abroad.” Indeed, the series, which Kieslowski ultimately directed with nine different cinematographers, became a critical sensation on the festival circuit and served as the West’s first major exposure to his work.
The Decalogue films are noted for their tight dramatic constructions, vividly rendered characters, and emotionally resonant ethical dilemmas depicting characters attempting to live in the modern world according to (or in search of) presupposed ideals. Although Biblical in theme, the series’ only explicit foray into theological meaning occurs in Decalogue: One, with its heart-rending story of a father dependent upon rationality and technology who is devastated by his son’s illogical death. In a striking image, the father (played by Henryk Baranowski) knocks over an altar in grief, causing a candle to drip down the face a Virgin Mary icon like paraffin tears—an enigmatic and yet wholly appropriate beginning to a series confronting the harsh realities of daily life in dialectical relationship to its metaphysical values.
Kieslowski chose Decalogue: Five and the Ministry of Arts and Culture (who funded the series) chose Decalogue: Six as the two episodes to be expanded into features entitled, respectively, A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love.
Ten commandments, 10 films. Krzysztof Kieslowski sat for months in his small, smoke-filled room in Warsaw writing the scripts with a lawyer he’d met in the early 1980s, during the Solidarity trials. Krzysztof Piesiewicz didn’t know how to write, the director remembered, but he could talk. For hours they talked about Poland in turmoil, and together they wrote the screenplay for “No End” (1985), which told three stories of life under martial law. The government found it unsympathetic, the opposition found it compromised, and the Catholic church found it immoral. During the controversy, the collaborators ran into each other in the rain, and Piesiewicz, maybe looking for more trouble, shouted, “Someone should make a film about the Ten Commandments.”
They made 10 films, each an hour long, for Polish television. The series ran in the late 1980s, played at Venice and other film festivals, and gathered extraordinary praise. But the form was ungainly for theatrical showing (do you ask audiences to sit for 10 hours, or come for five two-hour sessions?), and “The Decalogue” never had an ordinary U.S. theatrical run, nor was it available here on video. Now, at last, it is being released in North America on tapes and DVD discs.
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A Short Film About Killing is one of the most significant works of late 20th-century European cinema. Originally conceived as the fifth episode of Kieślowski's ten-part television series Dekalog (based on the Ten Commandments), it was expanded into a feature film that went on to win the Jury Prize at Cannes and the first-ever European Film Award for Best Film.
Narrative Structure: Two Murders
The film is divided into two distinct halves, each centered on a brutal act of killing.
The Individual Act: The first half follows Jacek, a 19-year-old drifter wandering through a bleak, mid-winter Warsaw. He eventually hails a taxi driven by Waldemar, a rude and unpleasant man. In a remote location, Jacek brutally murders Waldemar. The scene is famous for being one of the most harrowing in cinema history—not because of "gore," but because of its agonizing length (over seven minutes) and the clumsy, desperate nature of the struggle.
The State Act: The second half follows Jacek’s trial and execution. Despite the passionate efforts of his young defense attorney, Piotr, Jacek is sentenced to death. The film then meticulously documents the bureaucratic and mechanical process of the state-sanctioned hanging, mirroring the brutality of the first murder with the cold efficiency of the second.
Character Studies
Jacek (The Killer)
Jacek is initially presented as a purely nihilistic figure—he drops stones from highway overpasses onto cars and scares away pigeons that a woman is feeding. However, as the film progresses, he is revealed to be a displaced soul. His migration from the countryside to the city has left him alienated. The late-film revelation regarding the accidental death of his sister provides a psychological "why" to his behavior, suggesting that his violence is a misdirected expression of grief and abandonment.
Piotr (The Lawyer)
Piotr serves as the film’s moral compass. We first see him passing his bar exam, full of youthful idealism. His journey is one of profound disillusionment; he represents the "Good" in a system that refuses to listen. His final, tearful confrontation with Jacek in the prison cell highlights the inadequacy of the legal system to address the human complexities of crime.
Historical Impact
The film had a profound real-world effect in Poland:
Legislative Change: The graphic nature of the execution scene was so disturbing to the Polish public and authorities that it sparked a massive debate on capital punishment.
Moratorium: Shortly after the film’s release, the Polish government declared a five-year moratorium on the death penalty.
Abolition: Poland eventually abolished capital punishment entirely in 1997.
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