A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING
Screenplay by
Directed by
Throwing away rags?
They can come in handy.
Someone threw it at me.
Did it hit you?
No.
You seen anyone around with rags like this?
I don't like cats.
They're as treacherous as people.
Is the movie any good?
No, it's boring.
What's it about?
Love. But it's boring.
Besides, it's not showing till this afternoon.
There's a meeting now.
What are you doing?
Pulling out gray hairs.
You know...
where the nearest taxi stand is?
Castle Square.
Hello.
Piotr Balicki?
Come in, please.
Would you like a portrait?
What do you charge?
Two thousand.
It takes that long?
What's the problem, my friend?
You're not paying for my time.
You're paying...
for my talent.
You got a talent?
No.
Can you make shoes?
Or grow a tree?
A tree?
Yeah, I can do that.
No need to worry, then.
Which way is Castle Square?
Straight ahead.
Here you are.
I hesitate not because I can't answer,
but because I've been asked that question twice before.
The answer was easy on the entrance exam.
Then four years ago, in this same building,
I wasn't so sure anymore.
And now...
it's a good question.
Why do I want to be a public defender?
Shall I give an honest answer
or say what I'm supposed to?
We want to get to know you.
To put it briefly, I don't know.
I'm drawn to it.
I've seen a lot these last four years.
It's a job
that you might say has a social function.
It's important to me that it fill a need.
But most important of all is that —
if all goes well here —
I'll be able to meet and understand people
I'd never meet in any other profession.
That's why.
I think that with the passing years, the answer becomes...
all the more elusive.
Everyone wonders if what they do has any meaning.
I'm afraid our doubts grow stronger and stronger.
Delivery!
Beata, hurry up.
Hello.
Go away.
You're scaring the pigeons.
Go away!
Swine!
Are you free?
You can see I'm washing it.
We'll wait. It's cold.
What is your view
of crime prevention in general?
In general terms, it's the impact of punishment
not so much on the convict as on other people,
so that they don't behave like the convict did.
Shall I be more specific? - Yes.
It's about how the convict deters others.
The convict becomes the deterrent.
Simply put, it's frightening people.
Article 50 of the Penal Code discusses this.
I don't appreciate your ironic tone.
It's a questionable justification for cruel punishment.
I'm not alone in that opinion. And it's often unfair.
Could you support your thesis
with some sort of authoritative
or classical quotation?
"Since Cain,
the world has neither been intimidated nor ameliorated
by punishment."
Need I name the author? - That's not necessary.
Ma'am, we forgot to charge for the vegetables.
Care for a ride somewhere, Beata?
Excuse me!
My wife made it.
Want it?
Eat up.
- Hello. - Yes?
I have...
You here to hang pictures?
No.
I thought you were.
I have a photograph.
Could you
enlarge it?
The crease will still be there.
That's okay.
All right.
Excuse me.
Can you really tell from someone's picture
if they're alive or not?
Someone's been pulling your leg.
- How are things? - Couldn't be better.
Choose the last number for me, like you always do.
Seventeen.
I have that already.
Sixteen.
That close?
Then 15.
You always fill them out so carefully.
I like order.
You're always lucky.
How much did you win last month?
412.
And 1,200 in autumn, right?
Last week you won 46.
You do all right. - I'm getting by.
But one always hopes... you know...
Yeah.
One always hopes.
Our team's the best!
We support the best team!
Piotr Balicki.
I'm pleased to inform you that you passed your examination.
After your four-year internship,
you are now a fellow lawyer.
Congratulations. - Thank you.
All that's left is to take the oath.
I passed the bar!
I'm a lawyer!
I'm a lawyer now!
I passed!
Piotr, stop fooling around.
What?
Get on.
You German?
Bulgarian?
Let me tell your fortune.
Spare a few coins for my child.
You will travel abroad.
No!
No, I'm not afraid of anything.
Let me read your palm.
I'll tell you the truth.
All right, but nothing but the truth.
- Yes? - Tea.
We don't have tea.
- What do you have? - Coffee and pastries.
A coffee and a pastry, then.
- What kind? - A cream puff.
Not that one. That one there.
Your line of fortune is long and strong.
Two children.
When?
There are moments in life...
when everything seems possible.
Your path is clear. You can do anything you desire.
I felt that way after high school.
I thought it would never happen again.
But I feel it again now.
When you cross a certain threshold, there's a moment...
when you feel everything is up to you, right?
Exactly.
You know what I think?
No.
I never do.
People will love you...
just as I do now.
Are you by any chance
going to Mokotów? - No. Wola.
We're in a hurry.
Mokotów.
Where were they going?
Wola.
Hold your horses.
Hothead.
- What is it? - Nothing.
I was just thinking it might not all be so easy.
Could you roll the window up a bit?
It's cold.
Left here.
Straight ahead is better.
I prefer this way.
As you wish.
Stop. We're here.
The road's closed ahead. - I wasn't going any farther.
Jesus...
Hiding place...
money...
my wife...
money...
all alone...
Please...
I beg you...
I'll tell you of a brave little golden lion
Whose courage grew greater every day
All the grown-up lions
Told him
That a lion must always be lionhearted
I understand very well and I like to be brave
But sometimes I get so scared
Can I still buy potatoes?
Jacek? Come in!
Hi, Beata. Going to bed already?
After I have a bite. It's dark.
Come outside a second. I have something to show you.
Do I need a coat?
No, you're fine.
- Is it far? - It's right here.
I told you. Get in.
You wanted to go somewhere.
Now we can go all over.
You said you have a customer
who goes to the mountains.
Her husband.
We can go to the mountains.
We'll put the seats down.
I have a blanket.
The weather will warm up soon.
Where'd you get this car?
This court is adjourned.
Is it over, Mr. Balicki?
It's over.
It's me.
I lost.
Yes, utterly.
I have no idea.
Maybe I'll go for a walk.
No, don't come.
How are you feeling?
Did you get some sleep?
Good.
Yes. Bye.
Excuse me.
Jacek.
Excuse me.
Your Honor, I know this isn't customary practice.
Indeed... it's not.
I wanted to ask you, now that it's over:
Would it have made any difference if he'd had
an older, more renowned lawyer to defend him
instead of me?
Absolutely not.
Perhaps my words didn't —
Perhaps if I had —
Your summation
was perhaps the most eloquent indictment
of capital punishment that I've heard in years.
But the sentence couldn't have been any different.
You were faultless,
as a lawyer and as a human being.
Despite the difficult circumstances...
I'm glad to have met you.
- Good-bye. - In this case...
one could perhaps have wished for a better judge.
What happens now
is my responsibility.
Is that any consolation? - No.
Perhaps this doesn't really matter,
but when that boy described
how he'd wrapped the rope around his hand in that café...
I was there. - Where?
In that café, at that very moment.
It was a year ago. I'd just taken my bar exam.
Perhaps —
Perhaps I could have done something.
You're too sensitive for this profession.
- Too late to change that. - True.
You've aged a bit today.
Good-bye.
The warden will be with you soon.
- How are you? - It's too hot.
Hello.
The curtain's stuck.
Clean up in here.
Come in.
- Everything's ready, Warden. - Thank you.
Have No. 24 come to my office.
He's on his way.
Thank you.
I expected as much. - Me too.
Counselor...
you'll have half an hour.
Half an hour.
All right.
Come in.
Yes, sir?
Escort this gentleman.
May I leave my briefcase?
- Hello, Counselor. - Hello.
I'm going to see him. He wants to talk to me.
Quite a difficult duty.
Yes, it is.
Prosecutor, it's the first time I —
I hope it will be your last.
Counselor.
This isn't the best moment, but we so rarely meet.
My congratulations. I hear you had a son.
Yes.
Just recently. Thank you.
You wanted to see me.
Yes.
Have you seen my mother?
I have.
Was she crying?
Yes.
Did she ask you
to tell me anything?
Did she say anything?
No.
She just cried.
Have a seat.
Could you —
Could you...
see my mother again?
Afterwards.
Yes.
Of course.
I thought I'd ask you because...
as they led me to the paddy wagon that day...
you called out my name.
I called out to you —
I wanted —
I don't know what I wanted.
I'm almost 21...
but when you called my name...
my eyes filled with tears.
I said
in court —
I didn't listen in court.
Not until you called out to me.
They were all
against me, just like everyone here.
They're against what you did.
It's the same thing.
So you want me to see your mother.
Yes, to ask her
to bury me next to my father.
Can I be buried in a cemetery?
Yes.
The priest they sent said I could.
Naturally.
Next to my father
is another plot.
It was supposed to be for my mother.
Ask her to let me have it.
Yes, sir.
Yes, Warden.
The warden asks if you're finished.
Not yet.
You were saying?
I don't remember.
You were saying there were three burial plots.
That's right. Three.
My father's there, then Marysia...
and then there's a third spot.
Marysia's been buried there five years now.
Five years ago she was run over by a tractor
out where we lived in the country.
She was in sixth grade.
She was...
12 years old.
In sixth grade.
I was with a friend of mine who drove a tractor.
A buddy of mine.
We'd been drinking.
Wine and vodka.
Then he went and ran her over in the meadow by the woods.
There was a meadow next to the woods.
Here in prison I've been thinking...
if she were alive,
maybe I'd never have left home.
Maybe I'd have stayed.
She was my sister.
I had three brothers but just one sister.
My only sister.
I was...
her favorite.
She was my favorite too.
Perhaps everything would have been different.
But then I had to leave
and join a labor brigade.
I didn't want to leave.
If I'd stayed, maybe —
Maybe it wouldn't have come to this?
Maybe I wouldn't...
be here now.
The warden and prosecutor want to know if you're finished.
You tell the prosecutor I'll never say I'm finished.
You'll never say you're finished?
Never.
We bought the plot
because Marysia loved trees.
She loved green spaces.
That day, she'd gone to walk in the woods.
Do you have the sentence?
It's all there.
Let's go.
You can leave your briefcase here.
- Bring him out. - Yes, sir.
The prosecutor says to finish up.
Among my things
is a receipt from a photo shop.
I left a photo to be enlarged,
but I couldn't pick it up.
Could you take it to my mother?
What's the photo of?
Her First Communion.
I took it from Mother's things before I left.
It got creased.
Let's go.
Counselor...
I don't want to go.
Please...
Name?
Łazar, Jacek.
Date of birth?
March 17th, 1967.
Parents' first names?
Jan and...
Łucja.
I'll now read the sentence.
"In the name of the People's Republic of Poland,
this 27th day of April 1987,
after hearing the case of Jacek Łazar,
accused of having,
on the 10th of March 1987, in Warsaw,
assaulted, robbed, and murdered Waldemar Rykowski,
the court found him guilty,
and in accordance with Article 148, Paragraph 1,
and Article 44, Paragraph 2, of the Penal Code,
sentenced him to death
and stripped him of all civil rights in perpetuity.
The Supreme Court upheld the sentence.
The State Council rejected his appeal for clemency.
The sentence shall therefore be carried out."
Cigarette?
I'd prefer unfiltered.
His hands!
Carry out the sentence.
Keep going?
Let him go!
Keep going.
Stop!
Directed by
Cinematography by
Production Manager
Music by
Art Direction by
Sound by
Edited by
Digital Restoration by