"Actor: Artur Barcis"

• Dekalog | Blu Ray | (24/06/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Krzysztof Kieslowski's Dekalog is one of the greatest achievements of the late 20th century - as much an intricate work of moral philosophy as it is a collection of psychologically riveting narratives. Each standalone story revolves around the consequences arising from a breach of one of the Ten Commandments, but this is no finger-wagging religious tract: Kieslowski was one of film history's keenest observers of human nature, and his troubled, vainglorious, self-deceiving, deeply flawed characters (many played by some of Poland's finest character actors) are universally recognisable. Special Contents: 4K restoration of all ten episodes, presented in their original broadcast aspect ratios Original uncompressed Polish mono soundtrack, with optional English subtitles The Guardian Interview: Krzysztof Kieslowski, an onstage conversation with Derek Malcolm at London's National Film Theatre on 2 April 1990 to mark the British premiere of Dekalog Dekalog: An Appreciation, in which critic Tony Rayns, a Kieslowski champion for many decades, pays tribute to his masterpiece

• Dekalog - The Ten Commandments - Parts 1-5 | DVD | (27/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A terrible idea, of course", was Krzysztof Kieœlowski's first reaction when his co-scriptwriter, Krzysztof Piesiewicz, first suggested the idea for Dekalog--a series of 10 one-hour films, each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments. But from this unpromising beginning came an edgy, unsettling tour de force, the culmination of Kieœlowski's work in his native Poland and, quite possibly, the last cinematic masterpiece to come out of Communist Eastern Europe. The full Dekalog consists of ten one-hour films: this pair of double discs contains the first five. The links to the specific commandments are often oblique and imprecise, and shouldn't be taken too literally. Kieœlowski is using this framework not as a direct exposition of Mosaic Law, nor even as a commentary on its relevance today, but rather as a series of meditations on the complexity of moral choices. All the films are set in the same drab high-rise Warsaw housing estate, and characters from one story will show up the background of others, passing across the frame as they go about their business. One young man who appears in nearly all the films never plays a leading role nor even speaks a line, but remains a watchful, melancholy presence, haunting and disquieting, gazing at the events unfolding around him like an uneasy conscience. Grim though these stories are, there's often a note of ironic humour leavening the overall bleakness. But this set ends with one of the grimmest of all. In Dekalog 5 a young man murders a taxi driver for no apparent reason, then is executed himself. Both deaths are equally squalid and appalling. This episode was later expanded to feature-film length with the title A Short Film About Killing. The greater length enhanced its impact; it's a pity that room wasn't found for that longer version here. On the DVDs: Dekalog, Parts 1-5 offers very little additional material. The second disc, which contains episodes 4 and 5, also includes a brief on-screen text biography and filmography for Kieœlowski. The films are shown in their original 4:3 ratio, in a crisp clean transfer. --Philip Kemp

• A Short Film About Love | DVD | (29/09/2003) from £6.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (185.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Kieslowski's 'A Short Film About Love' was expanded from one of the most lyrical episodes in 'Dekalog' his celebrated cycle of short films based on the Ten Commandments. A young man falls in love with an older woman who lives across the courtyard in the same Warsaw apartment block. He watches her and her succession of lovers until she becomes aware of his spying and confronts him with a sexual invitation.

• A Short Film About Killing | DVD | (29/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  'A Short Film About Killing' is based on the Fifth Commandment: 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' and is a psychological vivisection of the brutal and senseless murder of a taxi-driver by a young drifter with no explanation offered and no extenuating circumstances given. Kieslowski demonstrates his skill and dexterity as a master of suspense keeping tensions rising and viewers in knots producing a searing powerful moral indictment of capital punishment. Directed by Kieslowski the direct

• No End | DVD | (24/11/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Poland is under martial law and in 1982 Solidarity is banned. Ulla a translator working on Orwell suddenly loses her husband Antek an attorney. She is possessed by her grief but Antek continues to appear to her...

• Leben Fur Leben - Maximilian Kolbe | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In July 1941 Jan a young Silesian manages to escape from the concentration camp at Auschwitz. In revenge for this one fugitive camp commandant Fritsch condemns ten prisoners to the starvation bunker. When one of them collapses under this sentence of death the Franciscan priest Maximillian Maria Kolbe sacrifices his own life instead. From now on Jan is not only fleeing the Gestapo but also his guilt for his involvement in Kolbe's death. For the rest of his life he will rema