A SHORT FILM ABOUT KILLING
Screenplay
Directed by KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI
Throwing away floorcloths?
They can be useful.
Someone threw it at me.
It hit you?
No.
Did you see anyone carrying this?
I don't like cats.
They're as unreliable as people.
Is it a good film?
No, it's boring.
What's it about?
It's about love, but it's boring.
Besides, it's only showing in the afternoon.
What are you doing?
Pulling out my white hairs.
Where can I find a taxi?
Royal Castle Square.
Hello.
Mr. Balicki?
Come in, please.
Would you like a portrait?
How much do you charge?
Two thousand.
Does it take long?
What do you mean?
It's not my time you pay for.
You pay
for my talent.
Do you have a talent?
No.
Can you make shoes?
Grow a tree?
A tree?
Yes, I can.
No need to worry, then.
Royal Castle Square?
Straight ahead.
I'm trying to think about how I should answer that.
I've been asked that question twice.
When I was in college, the answer was easy.
Then four years ago, right here,
I wasn't so sure anymore.
And now...
it's a good question.
Why do I want to become a lawyer?
Shall I give an honest answer,
or shall I say what I'm supposed to?
We want to get to know you.
To put it briefly, I don't know.
I'm attracted to...
In the past four years, I've seen...
It's a job
that we could say has a social function.
It's important to me that it be useful.
But what I think I like the most about this job
is that... if I succeed in this exam,
I'll be able to meet and understand people
whom I'd never meet if I'd chosen a different job.
That's my motivation.
I think as we grow older the answer becomes
all the more elusive.
Every man wonders about the meaning of his job.
I think the further we go,
the more we doubt.
The goods, Chief.
Hurry up, Beata.
Hello.
Go away. You're scaring the pigeons!
Will you go away?
Are you free?
Can't you see I'm washing it?
We'll wait. It's cold.
In your own words, can you explain the principle
of overall prevention?
Basically,
it concerns not so much a convict as the other people,
so that they don't end up like that convict.
- Shall I be more specific? - Yes.
It's about how the acts of a convict,
or rather of convicts, affect other people.
It simply involves instilling fear in people.
That's what we read in the Penal Code.
I don't appreciate your ironic tone.
It's a questionable argument used to justify
a cruel punishment,
often unfair.
Could you support your thesis
with a classical quotation?
''Since Cain, no punishment
has been capable
of improving the world.''
- Shall I name the author? - That won't be necessary.
Chief made a mistake with your account.
Care for a ride, miss?
My wife made it. You want it?
Eat up.
Hello.
I have...
You're the plumber?
No.
I thought you were.
I have a picture.
Could you
blow it up?
The crease will still be there.
That's okay.
All right.
Excuse me.
Can we really tell from someone's picture
if they're dead or not?
Someone's been pulling your leg.
- How are things? - Couldn't be better.
The last number?
Seventeen.
I have that one.
Sixteen.
Sixteen? That close?
Fifteen, then.
You always fill them out so carefully.
Personally, I like order.
You're in luck.
How much did you get last month?
412.
And 1.200 in the autumn.
Last week you got 46.
- Adding all that up... - I'm getting by.
But I wish I could...
Well...
You wish...
Our team's the best!
We support the best team!
Mr. Balicki.
I'm very pleased to tell you that you passed.
After your four-year apprenticeship,
you will be a fellow lawyer.
Congratulations.
All you have to do is take the oath.
I passed my exam!
I'm a lawyer!
Stop fooling around.
Get on.
German?
From Bulgaria?
I can tell your fortune.
Some spare change for my child.
You'll leave the country.
No!
I'm not afraid of anything.
Let me read your palms.
I'll tell the truth.
All right, go ahead.
- Tea. - We don't have any more.
- What do you have? - Coffee, pastries.
A coffee and a pastry, then.
- What kind? - A cream puff.
Not that one. The other one.
Your line of fortune is long and strong.
Two children.
When?
There are moments in life
when anything seems possible.
Your path is clearly laid out before you.
That's how I felt when I finished school.
That's how I feel today.
When you cross a certain threshold, there's a moment
when you feel it all depends on you.
Exactly.
You know what I think?
No, I never do.
People will love you.
Just like I love you now.
Are you by any chance going
to Mokotow?
No, to Wola.
We're in a hurry.
To Mokotow.
Where were they going?
To Wola.
Calm down. He's a bit nervous.
What is it?
Nothing.
It may not be that easy.
Roll up the window, please.
It's cold.
Turn left here.
I could go straight ahead.
I prefer this way.
As you wish.
Stop. It's over there.
- You can't drive on. - I wasn't going any further.
Jesus.
Please, I beg you...
I beg you.
I'll tell you about a brave little lion
Whose courage grew bigger every day
All the other lions
Said to his face
That a lion must always have the heart of a lion
I understand very well and I like to be brave
But sometimes I get so scared
Is it still open?
Jacek? Come in!
Hi, Beata! Are you going to bed?
Yes, very soon.
Come out here a second. I have something to show you.
Do I have to change?
No, you don't have to.
- Is it far? - It's right here.
I told you. Get in.
You wanted to go somewhere.
Now we can.
You said you had a customer
who went to the mountains.
Her husband...
We can go to the mountains.
We'll put the seats down.
I have some blankets.
The weather will warm up.
Where did you get this car?
This session is closed.
Is this the end, Mr. Balicki?
The end.
It's me.
I lost the case.
Hands down.
I don't know.
Perhaps I'll go for a walk.
No, don't come.
How are you?
Did you get some sleep?
Good.
Yes. Bye.
Excuse me.
Jacek!
Excuse me.
I know this is not usual practice...
Indeed... it's not usual practice.
I wanted to ask you, now that it's over.
Would things have been different
if he'd had a famous lawyer to defend him
instead of me?
Absolutely not.
My summation didn't...
Perhaps if I had...
Your summation
was a wonderful indictment
of the death penalty.
But the sentence couldn't have been any different.
You didn't make any mistakes, not as a lawyer
or as a man.
Despite the awful present circumstances,
it was a pleasure to meet you.
In this case,
I could have imagined a better judge.
That sentence...
it's my responsibility.
- Does that console you? - No.
You know, when that fellow explained
how he'd rolled the rope
around his hand in that café...
- I was there. - Where?
In that café, at that very moment.
I had just taken my law exam.
Also...
I could have done something.
You're too sensitive for this type of work.
Too late to change that.
Yes, you've aged a bit today.
Good-bye.
The governor will see you.
- How are you? - Too hot.
Hello.
The curtain's stuck.
Clean up the floor a bit.
Come in.
Everything's ready, sir.
Call number 24.
He's coming.
Thank you.
I knew it.
So did I.
Yes, I know.
You'll have half an hour.
Half an hour.
Okay.
Take the lawyer there.
May I leave my briefcase here?
Hello, Mr. Balicki.
I'm going to see him. He wants to talk to me.
Quite a difficult duty.
Difficult indeed. It's my first time.
I hope it'll be your last.
Mr. Balicki.
It may not be the best time for this,
but I hear you had a son. Congratulations.
Yes.
Not very long ago. Thank you.
Did you want to see me?
Yes.
Have you seen my mother?
I have.
Was she crying?
Yes, she was.
Did she ask... for anything?
Did she say anything?
No.
All she did was cry.
Sit down.
Could you...
see my mother once again?
When it's all over?
Of course I can.
I thought I'd ask you because...
at the court you called me...
You called me ''Jacek.''
I called you...
I wanted to...
I don't know what I wanted.
I'm almost 21 ,
but when you called me,
I nearly cried.
I'd spoken
in court...
I don't know. I wasn't listening.
It was when you called out to me.
They were all
against me, just like everybody here.
They're against what you did.
It's the same thing.
So you want me to see your mother.
Yes, to tell her
to bury me next to my father.
Can I be buried in a cemetery?
Yes.
The priest they sent said I could.
Naturally.
Okay, next to my father
there's still
a burial plot. It was supposed to be my mother's.
Ask her to give it to me.
Yes?
Yes, sir.
The governor asks if you're through.
Not yet.
You were saying?
I can't remember.
You were saying there are three burial plots.
Yes, three.
My father rests there, then Marysia,
and there's a third one.
Marysia was buried there five years ago.
She was run over by a tractor.
Where we lived in the country.
She was about to finish elementary school.
She was 12 years old.
Finishing elementary school.
I was with a friend of mine who was a tractor driver.
He was a friend.
We'd been drinking.
Wine and vodka.
Then he went and ran her over.
On a field, in the undergrowth.
Sometimes I wonder...
if she hadn't died, perhaps...
I wouldn't have left.
She was my sister.
I had three brothers and a sister.
Just one sister.
She was...
She was my favorite.
She was fond of me too.
Everything could have been different.
But then I had to go.
I had to leave the village.
I didn't want to leave.
If I'd stayed, perhaps...
You wouldn't be here now.
Things could have
turned out different.
The governor and deputy want to know if you're finished.
Tell them I'll never say I'm finished.
You'll never say that?
Never.
We bought the land
because Marysia liked trees.
She liked trees and greenery.
That evening, she was going to walk in the forest.
Do you have the sentence?
It's all there.
Let's go.
You can leave your briefcase here.
Bring out the convict.
The deputy says to finish up.
In my stuff
there's a receipt from a photo shop.
I had a photo blown up,
but I had no time to pick it up.
Could you take the blowup to my mother?
What's it of?
Her First Communion.
I took it with me.
I creased it.
Let's go.
Mr. Balicki.
I don't want to go.
Last name and first name.
Lazar,Jacek.
Date of birth?
March 17 th, 1967.
Parents' first names?
Jan and...
Lucia.
I'll read the sentence.
''In the name of the People's Republic of Poland,
on the 27 th of April 1987,
after hearing the case ofJacek Lazar,
accused of having,
on the 10th of March 1986, in Warsaw,
murdered Waldemar Rekowski,
the court found him guilty,
and by virtue of Article 148, Paragraph 1 ,
and Article 44, Paragraph 2, of the Penal Code,
sentenced him to death
and stripped him of his civil rights.
The Supreme Court upheld the sentence.
The State Council refused a pardon.
The sentence shall therefore be carried out.''
Cigarette?
No filter, please.
His hands!
Carry out the sentence.
Pull it! Keep going.
Enough.