In 1985 Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski became acquainted with two men: Zbigniew Preisner and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, both of whom weren't that familiar with film industry. Eventually Kieslowski decided to make his next film No End (1985) with these two men; Piesiewicz as the screenwriter with Kieslowski and Preisner as the score composer. Shortly after the film was released Piesiewicz got an idea to make a film about The Ten Commandments. The idea fascinated Kieslowski but he didn't like the idea to make just a film but to make ten films, each dealing with one commandment. They got their idea working, the Polish television agreed to produce it and Zbigniew Preisner composed a score for each of the episodes. Krzysztof Kieslowski decided to make two theatrical versions of two episodes of The Decalogue (The Ten Commandments); Decalogue five Thou shalt not kill (A Short Film About Killing) and Decalogue six Thou shalt not commit adultery (A Short Film About Love). In each of the episodes of The Decalogue Kieslowski used a different cinematographer and let him to give the film his own visual touch. Decalogue five / A Short Film About Killing was filmed by Slawomir Idziak who also filmed The Double Life of Veronique (1991) and Three Colours: Blue (1993).
Three persons whose lives have no connections with each other are presented to us. A taxi driver, a new lawyer and a young 21-year-old boy Jacek. One day Jacek decides to kill the taxi driver for an unknown reason. After the difficult murder he gets arrested and the new lawyer takes his case. Jacek gets sentenced to death and the lawyer is forced to witness the first death of his client. This same pattern is shown to us in the first pictures we see: a dead rat in the gutter, a hung cat and a group of boys (the society) running away. Kieslowski was always interested in the coincidental events that can change the course of our lives. What kind of a turn happens in life when something unexpected happens? There are some turning points in life when important things happen and important choices are made, which can guide our life. "I believe that there are invisible threads that bond people together. The question is to find those threads." - K. Kieslowski. In his earlier film Blind Chance (1981) he dealt with fate and destiny by showing different variations of the protagonist's life.
The theatrical version is 25 minutes longer than the television version, but the length isn't the only difference between them. In Decalogue five the perspective is the lawyer's and in the film it is the boy's. The episode studies the commandment thou shalt not kill and the film just killing in general. Many have seen it as a film against capital punishment but Kieslowski didn't intend that. Sure he as a humanist is against capital punishment, but the film is a charge against violence in general. It just happened to be that after the film was released capital punishment was a current topic in the Polish media.
To create the repulsive Polish reality the cinematographer Slawomir Idziak got the idea of using colored lens, especially green ones. Green is often supposed to be the color of fresh, new beginning and spring. But when you put them in a camera the world turns into something obnoxious. Kieslowski wanted to show the world which was even uglier than reality. By this technical element Kieslowski was also able to delimit the picture more and delete all the useless things away from it. "Films of today are far too prolix. What isn't necessarily important should be cut out." In addition to the severe aesthetics Kieslowski also took a lot of "useless stuff" away from the storyline. He didn't film the trial of the boy, because it isn't relevant or interesting. "We the people should be interested in people." In his interview book Kieslowski on Kieslowski published by Danusia Stok, Kieslowski says that there were three reasons why he made A Short Film About Killing. The first: death penalty; the fact that someone gets killed by the society of Poland happens in Kieslowski's name because he's a citizen of Poland and he didn't want it to happen. The second reason was that to Kieslowski's mind killing is always wrong, no matter what the reasons were, who got killed and who was the killer. The third reason was that Kieslowski wanted to film the Polish world, which is pretty grim and dull.
The audience never gets to know why the boy kills the taxi driver and that is very relevant. What we do get to know are the reasons of the society which rest on the law, but we don't know the true humane reasons - and won't ever know. The film is about killing but also about loneliness; that profound loneliness in us all. All the characters of the film live alone and can't decide about anyone's fate but their own. It's a tale about loneliness which lives in our society, where people desperately try to get connection with each other. In our western world people quite paradoxically want to get out of the fuss and live in peace, miles away from other people. But at the same most of the people say that the thing they fear the most is loneliness; to be left alone.
A Short Film About Killing is a charge against violence. Capital punishment is the most radical form of violence one can imagine. The film achieves to bond violence and capital punishment, and to resist capital punishment as a form of violence. It is a profound film about loneliness in us all and how small things can change the course of our lives.
Three persons whose lives have no connections with each other are presented to us. A taxi driver, a new lawyer and a young 21-year-old boy Jacek. One day Jacek decides to kill the taxi driver for an unknown reason. After the difficult murder he gets arrested and the new lawyer takes his case. Jacek gets sentenced to death and the lawyer is forced to witness the first death of his client. This same pattern is shown to us in the first pictures we see: a dead rat in the gutter, a hung cat and a group of boys (the society) running away. Kieslowski was always interested in the coincidental events that can change the course of our lives. What kind of a turn happens in life when something unexpected happens? There are some turning points in life when important things happen and important choices are made, which can guide our life. "I believe that there are invisible threads that bond people together. The question is to find those threads." - K. Kieslowski. In his earlier film Blind Chance (1981) he dealt with fate and destiny by showing different variations of the protagonist's life.
The theatrical version is 25 minutes longer than the television version, but the length isn't the only difference between them. In Decalogue five the perspective is the lawyer's and in the film it is the boy's. The episode studies the commandment thou shalt not kill and the film just killing in general. Many have seen it as a film against capital punishment but Kieslowski didn't intend that. Sure he as a humanist is against capital punishment, but the film is a charge against violence in general. It just happened to be that after the film was released capital punishment was a current topic in the Polish media.
To create the repulsive Polish reality the cinematographer Slawomir Idziak got the idea of using colored lens, especially green ones. Green is often supposed to be the color of fresh, new beginning and spring. But when you put them in a camera the world turns into something obnoxious. Kieslowski wanted to show the world which was even uglier than reality. By this technical element Kieslowski was also able to delimit the picture more and delete all the useless things away from it. "Films of today are far too prolix. What isn't necessarily important should be cut out." In addition to the severe aesthetics Kieslowski also took a lot of "useless stuff" away from the storyline. He didn't film the trial of the boy, because it isn't relevant or interesting. "We the people should be interested in people." In his interview book Kieslowski on Kieslowski published by Danusia Stok, Kieslowski says that there were three reasons why he made A Short Film About Killing. The first: death penalty; the fact that someone gets killed by the society of Poland happens in Kieslowski's name because he's a citizen of Poland and he didn't want it to happen. The second reason was that to Kieslowski's mind killing is always wrong, no matter what the reasons were, who got killed and who was the killer. The third reason was that Kieslowski wanted to film the Polish world, which is pretty grim and dull.
The audience never gets to know why the boy kills the taxi driver and that is very relevant. What we do get to know are the reasons of the society which rest on the law, but we don't know the true humane reasons - and won't ever know. The film is about killing but also about loneliness; that profound loneliness in us all. All the characters of the film live alone and can't decide about anyone's fate but their own. It's a tale about loneliness which lives in our society, where people desperately try to get connection with each other. In our western world people quite paradoxically want to get out of the fuss and live in peace, miles away from other people. But at the same most of the people say that the thing they fear the most is loneliness; to be left alone.
A Short Film About Killing is a charge against violence. Capital punishment is the most radical form of violence one can imagine. The film achieves to bond violence and capital punishment, and to resist capital punishment as a form of violence. It is a profound film about loneliness in us all and how small things can change the course of our lives.