Review of A Short Film About Killing (1988) by Stephen C — 01 Jul 2012

A film so powerful it encouraged the Poles to examine their approach to death penalty.

Yatzek is an aimless 20 year old drifter who murders a taxi driver in a sequence which is brutally realistic and shows how difficult the act of murder actually is.

Director Krzystof Kieslowski shoots everything with a grey and green hue toning down more brighter coloursin favour of greens and black with shaded out images to place emphasis on certain parts of the film.

Kieslowski also manages to pick out details in his film that other less talented directors would have missed such as a falling cloth,a foot coming out of a shoe and a ray of bright light in a green field.

This eye for detail would be more pronounced in the three colours film which followed,but here the power of the images carries the film to its shocking conclusion when we see the execution of Yatzek by hanging.

Many consider Kieslowski a genius and on the basis of this one film im very much inclind to agree.