Decalogue, five

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Movie
German title Decalogue, five
Original title Decalogue, pięć
Country of production Poland
original language Polish
Publishing year 1990
length 57 minutes
Rod
Director Krzysztof Kieślowski
script Krzysztof Kieślowski,
Krzysztof Piesiewicz
production Ryszard Chutkowski
music Zbigniew Preisner
camera Sławomir Idziak
cut Ewa Smal
occupation
chronology

←  Predecessor
Decalogue, Four

Successor  →
Decalogue, Six

Dekalog, Five is a Polish television film from 1990. As the fifth part of the Dekalog series by director Krzysztof Kieślowski , the film deals with the fifth commandment You Shall Not Kill .

The film was also released as a longer theatrical version under the title A Short Film About Killing .

content

In this "Decalogue" part, three storylines run parallel to each other until they meet:

  1. A young man seems to be walking aimlessly through the city. He seems restless, dissatisfied and in a bad mood. In one situation, the young man is standing on a car bridge and causes an accident by throwing a stone. His aggressive behavior is only well received by two children; from the outside they peek through the window of a café where he is sitting. He flicks the coffee grounds from his cup against the glass with a spoon. They laugh. As the film progresses, he keeps trying to get a taxi. Since the taxi stand is too full, he moves on.
  2. An older man is constantly busy with his taxi. He also looks rude, is unfriendly to his fellow passengers or simply leaves people who have waited until he has finished cleaning his taxi to stand and drive off. In the course of the first part of the film, the paths of both protagonists accidentally cross in different places in the city without being aware of one another.
  3. A prospective criminal defense attorney is currently completing his exam and suggesting to the examining committee during the final exam that punishment has never been of any use. He still passes the exam.

Finally the young man gets into the car with the taxi driver. He asks him to go outside. On a remote dirt road, he kills the taxi driver in an act lasting several minutes. A short time later, the young man is arrested. The young lawyer is assigned this murder as the first case.

The action starts again after the trial: The accused young man was sentenced to hang because he was clearly convicted of brutal murder. The young criminal defense attorney feels that he has done too little for the convicted person.

After all instances have refused a pardon, the convicted person demands that the criminal defense attorney visit him again in the cell before he is taken to the execution. He is now insecure and scared about his imminent death, tells him his life story and asserts that everything would probably have turned out differently if his best friend had not run over his then twelve-year-old sister in a tractor five years ago after a binge, and she died.

Both are very close at this moment. The execution is carried out shortly afterwards, as torturous and undignified as the murder of the taxi driver. The young defense attorney is also present. Once carried out, he is sure that the death penalty is the wrong way to go. Sitting alone in his car, he repeats desperately: "I hate this, I hate it, just as I hate it all!"

criticism

“The short version of the movie 'A Short Film About Killing' contains a significant shift to the lawyer's perspective, but poses the fundamental question of killing, no less disturbing. Despite the shortening, the effect of the murder sequence remains deeply disturbing; in Kieslowski's impressive depiction of the darkest sides of human existence, only sporadic signs of hope glimmer. "

- film service

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