FREE ON CINEGEEK.De Krzysztof Kieslowski - A Short film About Killing 

It was in the late 80s that Krzysztof Kieslowski, together with Krzysztof Piesiewicz, created one of the greatest works in film history: The Decalogue, including A Short Film About Love and A Short Film About Killing. Structured like a TV series in one-hour episodes, but undeniably in the visual language of cinema, The Decalogue transcends the boring debate about whether cinema or television (and today streaming) is better. In our box set, you now get all the episodes and get to decide for yourself whether it's big screen or small screen. Even harder: try to put the Decalogue into words. A ten-part series based on the 10 Commandments but going far beyond its structure. Some episodes deal with several commandments and it is never explicitly explained which one exactly. Commandment No. 5 "Thou shalt not kill" forms the basis for episode 5 "A Short Film About Killing". A harrowing episode that questions the death penalty as well as murder. But is it even possible to make films about individual commandments in an increasingly complex world? Won't everything be connected to everything else? It is. Kieslowski films like a good teacher. Like a good father. A decent man who takes care of all of us as if we were his children. And so we too feel something like parental affection! He creates just such a character in the Decalogue; a kindly professor who programmes together with his son. Is he playing God? But Kieslowski would never turn his own characters into villains. He always shows compassion. We feel this compassion for all his characters. He never wants to show us something like sin in the modern world. All of Kieslowski's characters are deeply flawed, but always traceable to something greater than themselves. Kieslowski is interested in general human experience, not in any kind of denigration of the godless. Try watching several episodes in a row. An act of almost overwhelming power! All the episodes take place in the same apartment complex. So sometimes we meet the characters from episode 4 again in episode 2. Then you start to notice thematic lines.... Those who, just like me, are exhausted by films that don't really like their characters deserve to enjoy Kieslowski's cinema! It's always about kindness and compassion! A togetherness! Kieslowski gets involved with the people in his films. And so we are also allowed to discover something of ourselves in his characters. And what we see changes us. Even more: The Decalogue changes with us as we grow older. Look at the work again in ten years and you will see it from a completely new perspective. You discover something new! Dekalog was indispensable in the 80s, just as it was in the 00s and just as it is today. Dekalog will always be indispensable!