A Short Film About Killing (1988)

'A Short Film About Killing' is a subtle, unlikely masterpiece. Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski's movie started off as an episode of 'Dekalog' an ambitious communist era television series that sounds like something out of the streaming age, 10 one hour films each of which is a morality tale inspired by one of the ten commandments and set in and around a large public housing complex. Two of these episode were designed to be expanded into theatrical films, 'A Short Film About Killing' would win both the Jury and Critics prize at the 1988 Cannes Film festival. It is the story of a 19 year old man who brutally murders a cab drive and his earnest young lawyers efforts to fight for him. Though the cab driver Jacek kills was not a pleasant man, his reasons for doing so were ultimately very stupid and naïve, and the roughly seven minute murder sequence can be hard to watch. You think you know this young man, but you don't fully.

His lawyer Mr. Balicki is a good compassionate man, he does not sanction what Jacek did but believes no good will come from a further killing. The fact that Balicki really cares is what allows Jacek to open up to him and by the end, which is another long execution sequence, this one in prison the viewer is or at least should feel conflicted. The colors throughout the film are de-saturated, the pacing slow and deliberate, the performances restrained, the music sad and reflective, the combination extremely effective. The story jumps from the aftermath of the first murder to the aftermath of the trail, it doesn't fill in all the details, it wants to focus on the immediate lead ups, and aftermaths, and presentations of the two  killings. It want's to liken them to each other, each not straight foreword, each gray, but each awful. ****