Blind Chance and A Short Film About Killing

One moment, one event — three completely different outcomes. From esteemed director Krzysztof Kieślowski comes a film examining the effects of even the smallest of choices. A young medical student’s life is forever changed by three subtle variations of the same innocuous episode: he does or does not catch a Warsaw-bound train, and subsequently, he either becomes a leading and progressively disenchanted Communist Party functionary, is arrested and sent to a labor camp where his anti-Party ire is stoked, or returns to his life in Łódź and becomes a family man. A poetic fable that touches on the elusive ambiguities of chance and fate, Blind Chance was heavily censored by the communist regime, due to its anti-Party messages, and was withheld for release for six years. The now-restored version of the film includes scenes never before shown to the public.

1987, 123 minutes, color, DCP | Written and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski; with Boguslaw Linda, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Boguslawa Pawelec, Marzena Trybala.

On a grey March day, the paths of three men cross in the same café as idealistic lawyer Piotr celebrates passing his bar exam while 20-year-old Jacek prepares to murder cabbie Marian. Krzysztof Kieślowski’s unflinching film is a psychological and ethical study of murder, both by individuals and by the State. “A horror film in which the killer is human nature itself,” per critic Rob Nelson, A Short Film about Killing employs Sławomir Idziak’s meticulous, heavily filtered cinematography to accentuate its grim ambience. A dual prize winner at Cannes, A Short Film about Killing expanded on a chapter of Kieślowski’s acclaimed Decalogue series and opened the door to an international career for the director that included works such as The Double Life of Véronique and the Three Colors trilogy.

1988, 86 minutes, color, DCP | Written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz , Krzysztof Kieślowski; directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski; with Miroslaw Baka, Krzysztof Globisz, Jan Tesarz, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Barbara Dziekan, Aleksander Bednarz.