A Short Film About Killing

Waldemar Rekowski (Jan Tesarz) is a middle-aged taxicab driver in Warsaw. An overweight and crude man, he enjoys staring at young women. Jacek Łazar (Mirosław Baka) is a 19-year-old drifter who recently arrived in Warsaw from the countryside and is now aimlessly wandering the streets of the city. He seems to take pleasure in causing other people's misfortunes: he throws a stranger into the urinals of a public toilet after being approached sexually; he drops a large stone from a bridge onto a passing vehicle causing an accident; and he scares away pigeons to spite an old lady who was feeding them. Piotr Balicki (Krzysztof Globisz) is a young and idealistic lawyer who has just passed the bar exam. He takes his wife to a café where they discuss their future. At the same café, Jacek is sitting at a table handling a length of rope and a stick which he keeps in his bag. He puts away the rope and stick when he spots two girls playing at the other side of the window and he engages in a game with them. Jacek is later revealed to have been deeply traumatised by the death of his sister. Meanwhile, Waldemar has been driving his taxicab around the city looking for a fare. He stops near the café just as Jacek approaches and enters the cab. He asks to be driven to a remote part of the city near the countryside and insists the driver take a longer and more remote route. At their destination, Jacek murders Waldemar, by strangling him with the rope and then hitting him repeatedly with an iron bar before finally crushing his head with a large rock. Some time later, Jacek is caught and imprisoned. He is interviewed by his criminal defense lawyer, Piotr, for whom this is his first case after finishing his legal studies. Piotr has little chance of winning the case against Jacek because of the strong evidence against his client. In spite of Piotr's efforts, Jacek is found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging. Piotr approaches a judge afterwards asking if he could have done more to save his client's life. The judge says that Piotr gave the best argument against the death penalty he has heard in years, but that the legal outcome is correct. On the appointed day, the executioner arrives at the jail and prepares for the hanging. Piotr is at the prison to attend the execution, and an official congratulates him on having just become a father. In the moments before his execution, Jacek reveals to Piotr that his younger sister was killed by a tractor driven by his drunken friend, and that he was drinking with him; he says he never fully recovered from the tragic episode. Jacek then requests that he be given the final space in his family's grave which was reserved for his mother—that he be buried next to his sister and his father. The warden repeatedly asks if they are finished talking; Piotr defiantly says he will never be finished. Jacek gives his last requests to his lawyer, that Piotr retrieves from Jacek's personal effects a photo of his little sister's first communion and give it to his mother. They conclude that things would have turned out differently if the girl had not tragically died. Jacek is then taken from his cell and marched to the execution chamber by several prison guards. The confirmation of his sentence is read to him, as well as the decision to deny clemency. He is given last rites by a priest, and offered a final cigarette by the warden. When he requests to have one without filter instead, the executioner steps forward, lights one of his cigarettes and puts it into Jacek's mouth. Jacek takes a few puffs before it is stubbed out. Just before he is hanged, he breaks free from his guards and yells uncontrollably before his hands are shackled and he is hanged. Afterwards, Piotr drives to an empty field where he sobs.

Plot from A Short Film About KillingCC BY-SA 4.0