A Short Film About Killing

 A Short Film About Killing (1988)

Co-written and Directed by: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Won the Jury Prize and FIPRESCI at Cannes 1988.
Streaming on MUBI.

As the title suggests, it's a film about killing. More about what drives people to do it, the consequences of the actions, and how such acts affect people around as well. As I was watching the film, I felt like I was reading Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment - it had a very similar tone. The entire material revolves around one killing, exploring every facet of it. The colors are too saturated and vibrant, for a moment those greens were similar to the colors in Amelie. But of course, this film is almost the opposite of that film in terms of the tone and texture. Here, the visuals are unsettling, there is a lot of shadows, the sound design is also quite unsettling. 

The actual murder is so unsettling to watch - it's shot so well - because I remember Nawazuddin Siddique telling a story about how a man killed someone and took about 4 hours to do it. They do it for the rage and angst to completely come out. Here, we see that he ties a rope to his neck which could have been an impulsive act, but later when he smashes his head with the rock multiple times - we know it's not impulsive. Later when we know that he had gone through something in his life, and this act was his way of letting it out. For him, it wouldn't have mattered who he killed, it was just about the act. These things just explore what the human mind is capable of.