Kieślowski's Dekalog

With A Short Film About Killing (1988), Krzysztof Kieślowski presents us with a bleak, harrowing account of one mans actions - namely murder - and the punishment he must face as a result; execution. One of the things which interested me most about the film was its opening credits, which act as a precursor for the events which are about to unfold. Indeed, the opening minute or so of the film could itself be considered 'an even shorter film about killing': first we see the carcass of a rat followed by a shot of a cat hanging whilst a group of young boys run away. The cat (representative of our protagonist, Jacek) presumably killed the rat (the taxi driver) before being hanged itself by a group of young boys (perhaps symbolising the wardens who execute Jacek, or perhaps the society from which he is removed).

It is easy to draw comparisons between our protagonist, Jacek, and the protagonist of Albert Camus' novel L'Étranger, Meursault; both are alienated from the societies they live within and neither have any clear motives for the murders they commit. However, through Kieślowski's cinematic techniques it is apparent that, unlike Meursault, Jacek's murder of the taxi driver may have been premeditated: Kieślowski's use of lens filters, which "turn Warsaw into the putrid hell of the mind of the future murderer", help heighten the tension and sense of alienation present during the scenes leading up to the murder in which we see Jacek contemplate his decision, wrapping the rope around his hands as he eats in the café.

Originally part five of his ten part interpretation of the Ten Commandments, Dekalog (1988), A Short Film About Killing is extremely stylistically different from Dekalog 6, which itself was released separately from the series as A Short Film About Love (1988). Despite their differences, due mainly to Kieślowski's use of different cinematographers, the two films still have certain subtle details in common. Kieślowski uses a remarkably similar shot in both films which helps illustrate the distance between our protagonists, Jacek and Tomek, from society and their object of desire respectively: Kieślowski places a physical barrier between Tomek and Magda in the form of the cashier's window in the post office, something we see repeated when Jacek talks to the cinema box office girl.

Whilst Jacek's motives remain unclear (did he want the driver's car in order to impress his female friend, or did he kill the driver simply because he could?) what is certain is Kieślowski's critique of capital punishment (still legal in Poland at the time), tackling the subject head on and perhaps acting as a catalyst for the abolition of the death penalty in Poland, raising awareness of the subject much in the same way Ken Loach's Cathy Come Home (1966) had raised awareness for homelessness in Britain. Kieślowski asks us what exactly those in authority will achieve through capital punishment; a sentiment echoed in Jacek's lawyer Piotr's statement "Since Cain, no punishment has proved to be an adequate remedy".