Krzysztof Kieślowski

Protection Line

In this meta-film, the film students of the Department of Film at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture in Helsinki collectively make fun of themselves, their film studies and the state of Finnish cinema. Legendary director Krzysztof Kieslowski makes a cameo appearance, shivering in the chilling winds of Katajanokka.

Release Date:2025-03-06

Character:self - cameo

Sodankylä Forever

The Midnight Sun Film Festival is held every June in the Finnish village of Sodankylä beyond the arctic circle — where the sun never sets. Founded by Aki and Mika Kaurismäki along with Anssi Mänttäri and Peter von Bagh in 1985, the festival has played host to an international who’s who of directors and each day begins with a two-hour discussion. To mark the festival’s silver anniversary, festival director Peter von Bagh edited together highlights from these dialogues to create an epic four-part choral history of cinema drawn from the anecdotes, insights, and wisdom of his all-star cast: Coppola, Fuller, Forman, Chabrol, Corman, Demy, Kieslowski, Kiarostami, Varda, Oliveira, Erice, Rouch, Gilliam, Jancso — and 64 more. Ranging across innumerable topics (war, censorship, movie stars, formative influences, America, neorealism) these voices, many now passed away, engage in a personal dialogue across the years that’s by turns charming, profound, hilarious and moving.

Release Date:2010-08-05

Character:Self

Hope

Francis Ratay witnesses the theft of church painting "Angel with violin". The entire incident recorded by an amateur camera. The thief turns out to Benedict Weber, gallery owner and art connoisseur. Francis comes to his gallery. Blackmails him, that will provide police record, unless the image in three days back in place.

Release Date:2007-09-19

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Vote Count:8

Cinema 16: European Short Films (European Edition)

A collection of short films by 16 European directors.

Release Date:2006-06-05

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:1

Hell

Three sisters share a connection to a violent incident from their childhood reunite to for the chance to come to terms with their past.

Release Date:2005-11-16

Department:Writing

Job:Scenario Writer

Vote Count:40

Still Alive: A Film About Krzysztof Kieslowski

Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz directed this insightful TV documentary (2005) tracing the Polish filmmaker's career. Former classmates reminisce about Kieslowski's happy beginnings at the Lodz film school and how his dissatisfaction with some of his early documentaries prompted the dramatic work and stylistic experimentation that led to his monumental series of films The Decalogue (1989). Wim Wenders, Agnieszka Holland, and Juliette Binoche are among the many admirers weighing in on his hard-driving work methods and preoccupation with the ephemeral. In Polish, French, and German with subtitles.

Release Date:2005-02-27

Character:Self

Vote Count:3

1966-1988: Kieslowski, Polish Filmmaker

Documentary tracing the filmmaker’s work in Poland, from his days as a student through The Double Life of Véronique.

Release Date:2005-01-01

Character:Self

Vote Count:2

Heaven

Cate Blanchett stars as Philippa, a British teacher living in Turin, Italy, who has seen many friends, including her husband, fall victim to drug overdoses. Philippa has repeatedly contacted the police with information about Turin's biggest drug dealer but, complicit in his dealings, they have completely ignored her. So Philippa decides to dole out her own form of justice with a homemade bomb -- setting her off on a journey from young widow to fugitive on the run.

Release Date:2002-02-06

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:257

The Big Animal

Left behind by a circus, a camel wanders to the house of a simple middle-aged couple in a Polish village. Although the wife is initially bewildered by the strange and unexpected animal, her husband immediately adopts it as a pet.

Release Date:2000-08-25

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Vote Count:23

Love Stories

Jerzy Stuhr scripted, directed and plays four roles in this Polish comedy about four men -- an army officer, a college instructor, a priest, and a drug dealer -- and their relationships with four females. An attractive student puts the teacher in an awkward spot when she reveals her love for him. An 11-year-old informs the priest that she's his daughter. The army officer is pleased when confronted by a past lover. The drug dealer, taken prisoner, must decide whether or not to trust his wife with his hidden loot. In the wrap-up, the elderly accountant passes judgment on all four men. Stuhr acted in films by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski, who had some input here by offering advice to Stuhr on this screenplay.

Release Date:1997-06-27

Department:Crew

Job:In Memory Of

Vote Count:9

Short Film About Krzysztof Kieslowski

A biographical story of Krzysztof Kieślowski. The production is composed of well-selected fragments of his documentaries and feature films. The aim of that is to create a universal human story: birth, education, maturation, love, work, illness, and death.

Release Date:1996-01-01

Character:Self

Krzysztof Kieslowski: I'm So-So...

Documentary about polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski

Release Date:1995-12-08

Character:Self

Vote Count:10

Short Working Day

A dramatisation of the workers' protests in June 1976 in Radom, seen from the perspective of the local Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party. [Produced in 1981, but not commercially released until 1996.]

Release Date:1995-11-02

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:7

Krzysztof Kieślowski: A Masterclass for Young Directors

Presents highlights of a workshop for young directors conducted by the Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski (1941-1996) in Amsterdam during the summer of 1994, inclusive of interviews with Kieślowski himself. The theme of the workshop was the direction of actors. For a fortnight, various groups worked every day on a scene from Ingmar Bergman's film, 'Scenes from a Marriage.'

Release Date:1995-06-01

Character:Self

Vote Count:3

A Short Film About Decalogue: An Interview with Krzysztof Kieslowski

This interview, made in January 1995, is an attempt to examine the universal messages offered by 'Decalogue', as well as it's idiosyncrasies

Release Date:1995-01-01

Character:Self

Vote Count:5

Krzysztof Kieślowski: A Lesson in Cinema

Film director Krzysztof Kieślowski examines in detail one scene from each of the films in his Three Colors Trilogy.

Release Date:1994-12-31

Character:Self

Kieślowski Cannes 94

A documentary about the showing of Krzysztof Kieślowski's film RED at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, including interviews with the director and the cast of the film.

Release Date:1994-12-31

Character:Self

Three Colors: Red

Part-time model Valentine unexpectedly befriends a retired judge after she runs over his dog. At first, the grumpy man shows no concern about the dog, and Valentine decides to keep it. But the two form a bond when she returns to his house and catches him listening to his neighbors’ phone calls.

Release Date:1994-05-12

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:1413

Three Colors: White

Polish immigrant Karol Karol finds himself out of a marriage, a job and a country when his French wife, Dominique, divorces him after six months due to his impotence. Forced to leave France after losing the business they jointly owned, Karol enlists fellow Polish expatriate Mikołaj to smuggle him back to their homeland.

Release Date:1994-01-26

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:1209

Three Colors: Blue

The wife of a famous composer survives a car accident that kills her husband and daughter. Now alone, she shakes off her old identity and explores her newfound freedom but finds that she is unbreakably bound to other humans, including her husband’s mistress, whose existence she never suspected.

Release Date:1993-09-08

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:1713

Tren na śmierć cenzora

Release Date:1992-01-01

Character:Self

The Double Life of Véronique

Véronique is a beautiful young French woman who aspires to be a renowned singer; Weronika lives in Poland, has a similar career goal and looks identical to Véronique, though the two are not related. The film follows both women as they contend with the ups and downs of their individual lives, with Véronique embarking on an unusual romance with Alexandre Fabbri, a puppeteer who may be able to help her with her existential issues.

Release Date:1991-05-15

Department:Writing

Job:Screenplay

Vote Count:801

Kieslowski: Dialogue

Documentary featuring a candid interview with Kieślowski and rare behind-the-scenes footage from the set of The Double Life of Véronique

Release Date:1991-01-01

Character:Self

Vote Count:1

The Ten Commandments of Krzysztof Kieslowski

Documentary on Krzysztof Kieslowski's Dekalog from the BBC Arena series.

Release Date:1990-05-04

Character:Self

Pictures of Europe

What makes European cinema so special? Find out in Paul Joyce’s feature-length documentary, Pictures of Europe, which examines the differences between American independent and Hollywood movies and films from European directors. Featuring luminary iconoclasts from European cinema such as Agnes Varda, Bernardo Bertolucci and Pedro Almodovar, as well as American counterpoints from Paul Schrader, and those who have crossed back and forth, such as Paul Verhoeven

Release Date:1990-04-25

Character:Self

City Life

Collection of documentary shorts by various acclaimed directors

Release Date:1990-01-26

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:1

Dekalog

Originally made for Polish television, “The Decalogue” focuses on the residents of a housing complex in late-Communist Poland, whose lives become subtly intertwined as they face emotional dilemmas that are at once deeply personal and universally human. Its ten hour-long films, drawing from the Ten Commandments for thematic inspiration and an overarching structure, grapple deftly with complex moral and existential questions concerning life, death, love, hate, truth, and the passage of time.

Release Date:1989-12-10

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Episode Count:10

Vote Count:84

Decalogue VI

A teenage postal worker, Tomek, routinely spies on his older neighbor Magda, a sexually liberated artist who lives in the apartment across the courtyard from his. As their private worlds merge, fascination turns to obsession, and the line between love and curiosity becomes violently blurred.

Release Date:1989-09-04

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:143

Decalogue II

Dorota Geller, a married woman, faces a dilemma involving her sick husband's prognosis. Her husband's doctor, who believes in God, sweared about it in vain.

Release Date:1989-05-16

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:176

Decalogue VIII

Zofia, a professor of ethics, is visited by Elżbieta, an American researching the fate of Jews who survived World War II. A daytime classroom conversation turns into a night of confrontation, and Zofia is forced to answer for a decision she made decades ago that directly affected the course of Elżbieta’s life.

Release Date:1989-05-16

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:123

Decalogue IV

A father and daughter, Michał and Anka, have a unique intimacy, which the college-aged Anka is beginning to feel conflicted about. When she finds an unopened letter from her deceased mother, it seems to justify her attraction to Michał, who may not in fact be her father.

Release Date:1989-05-16

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:141

Decalogue X

Jerzy and Artur’s father dies, leaving behind a valuable stamp collection, which, they discover, is coveted by dealers of varying degrees of shadiness. The more involved the brothers get in their father’s world, the more dire and comical their situation becomes.

Release Date:1989-05-16

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:125

Decalogue I

Krzysztof, a semantics professor and computer hobbyist, is raising his young son, Paweł, to look to science for answers, while Irena, Paweł’s aunt, lives a life rooted in faith. Over the course of one day, both adults are forced to question their belief systems.

Release Date:1989-05-16

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:239

Decalogue III

It’s Christmas Eve, and Ewa has plotted to pass the hours until morning with her former lover Janusz, a family man, by making him believe her husband has gone missing. During this night of recklessness and lies, the pair grapple with choices made when their affair was discovered three years ago, and with the value of their present lives.

Release Date:1989-05-16

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:141

Decalogue VII

As a high school student, Majka bore a child, Ania, whom Majka’s mother, Ewa, has been raising as her own. Now that Majka is ready for motherhood, Ewa refuses to let go, leading Majka to kidnap her own daughter, with unexpected emotional consequences.

Release Date:1989-05-16

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:125

Decalogue V

Jacek, an angry drifter, murders a taxi driver, brutally and without motive. His case is assigned to Piotr, an idealistic young lawyer who is morally opposed to the death penalty, and their interactions take on an emotional honesty that throws into stark relief for Piotr the injustice of killing of any kind.

Release Date:1989-05-16

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:146

Decalogue IX

Roman and Hanka have a loving marriage, but his impotence has led to her having an affair. The unbearable situation drives Roman to extreme measures both physically and mentally, testing their love and his own will to live.

Release Date:1989-05-16

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:116

A Short Film About Love

19-year-old Tomek whiles away his lonely life by spying on his opposite neighbour Magda through binoculars. She's an artist in her mid-thirties, and appears to have everything - not least a constant stream of men at her beck and call. But when the two finally meet, they discover that they have a lot more in common than appeared at first sight...

Release Date:1988-08-21

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Vote Count:375

A Short Film About Killing

Jacek climbs into the taxi driven by Waldemar, tells him to drive to a remote location, then brutally strangles him, seemingly without motive.

Release Date:1988-03-11

Department:Writing

Job:Author

Vote Count:360

Blind Chance

Witek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.

Release Date:1987-01-10

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:215

No End

1982, Poland. A translator loses her husband and becomes a victim of her own sorrow. She looks to sex, to her son, to law, and to hypnotism when she has nothing else in this time of martial law when Solidarity was banned.

Release Date:1985-06-17

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:105

The Calm

A young man in his twenties leaves prison after a three-year sentence. He wants to start a new life in a place where he is not known and dreams only of a job, a wife and a family. He succeeds partially in fulfilling these dreams, but then runs into a conflict on a construction job between the corrupt boss and fellow workers secretly planning a strike. He becomes a pawn in one camp while remaining true to his ideals in the other. Filmed in 1976 and shelved for five years.

Release Date:1980-09-19

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:13

Talking Heads

People of different age, profession and social status answer two simple questions: who they are and what they want from life.

Release Date:1980-08-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:77

Railway Station

Kieslowski’s later film Dworzec (Station, 1980) portrays the atmosphere at Central Station in Warsaw after the rush hour.

Release Date:1980-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:30

Camera Buff

Filip buys an 8mm movie camera when his first child is born. Because it's the first camera in town, he's named official photographer by the local Party boss. His horizons widen when he is sent to regional film festivals with his first works but his focus on movie making also leads to domestic strife and philosophical dilemmas.

Release Date:1979-11-16

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:168

Kartoteka

A former partisan now 38 years old remembers his childhood in the war.

Release Date:1979-10-15

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:4

Seven Women of Different Ages

Each day of the week is represented by a ballerina beginning with a young child and ending with an older ballet teacher.

Release Date:1979-06-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:18

From a Night Porter's Point of View

At the time of the Polish social regime, a security officer is promoted to work at a prison yard. Introducing concurrently with the narrator; he speaks of himself, his thoughts, his point of view.

Release Date:1979-06-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:23

Hospital

24 hours in the life of a hospital from the point of view of the doctors and nurses.

Release Date:1977-06-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:22

I Don't Know

The confession of a man who was the director of a factory in Lower Silesia. "He was a Party member but opposed to the Mafia-like organization of Party members which was active in that factory and region. Those people were stealing and debiting the factory account. He didn’t realize that people higher up were involved in the affair. And they finished him off.’ (Krzysztof Kieslowski)

Release Date:1977-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:5

The Scar

When a political decision is made as to the location of a new large chemical factory, Stefan Bednarz is put in charge of it. This honest communist party man has to confront the local community opposing the construction.

Release Date:1976-12-06

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:36

Two for the Seesaw

Release Date:1976-12-06

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Personnel

Romek, an idealistc 19-year-old boy, takes a job as a tailor in the costume department of a Warsaw theater company where his new colleague, Sowa, is pressured to make a costume for an overbearing soloist.

Release Date:1976-01-13

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:12

Slate

A short making-of from the set of Kieslowski's feature film "Blizna", which uses a lot the word "Action!" and the slate.

Release Date:1976-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:19

Curriculum Vitae

A communist party control committee interrogates a worker and party activist who is to be excluded from the party.

Release Date:1975-06-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:11

Legend

"Legenda" is a document about a famous polish writer Stefan Żeromski. It serves as an interview with people who knew the artist.

Release Date:1975-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Character:Krzysztof Kieślowski

First Love

After the doctor's refusal to perform abortion on a 17-year old girl, she and her boyfriend have to cope with the new situation. They both need to learn to take responsibility for their decisions, in spite of numerous hardships facing them.

Release Date:1974-07-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:15

Pedestrian Subway

A school teacher from a small town in Poland comes to Warsaw to see his estranged wife, a window dresser, in the hope that she will return to him rather than give him a divorce.

Release Date:1974-01-13

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:10

X-Ray

Patients with serious lung diseases, who are now in a sanatorium, tell us about their thoughts and feelings.

Release Date:1974-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:15

Niebieskie jak Morze Czarne

A group of middle-aged men takes a bus trip to the Black Sea, having to put up with the border guard, accommodation and their guide, a film school student.

Release Date:1973-08-10

Character:Survey Participant (uncredited)

Vote Count:2

The Bricklayer

Krzysztof Kieslowski's protagonist is Joseph Malesa, a former party activist, labor leader and mason. The document talks about his career and life through ups and downs

Release Date:1973-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:10

The Sun Rises Once a Day

After the war, the community of mountaineers is eager to start their own sawmill. When the communist authorities come to take over the sawmill, a rebellion starts.

Release Date:1972-04-04

Character:MO Officer (uncredited)

Vote Count:2

Checking the King

Two men in a game of chess. One of the players is a country boy who accidentally discovered a chess talent, and the other is a former lawyer who has not played chess for twenty years. The lawyer tells the story of learning to play chess: during World War II, he was arrested for no reason and imprisoned. One day, while waiting for another interrogation, he stole the book "Chess Review" from the investigating officer's coat. He perfected it for several months and started playing against himself. The intense mental effort led him to a nervous breakdown eventually...

Release Date:1972-02-13

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Refrain

One of the first documentary films of Krzysztof Kieslowski. It is a story about everyday life funeral in the 70s

Release Date:1972-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:16

Workers '71: Nothing About Us Without Us

Robotnicy - Nic o nas bez nas tells a story about Gdańsk Shipyard and its workers after so called Grudzień 1970 (1970 protests). After those events Edward Gierek replaced Władysław Gomułka as party first secretary and promised redical change in style and methods of ruling. Kieślowski shows the skepticism of workers and their attitude to party members. He also pictures conflicts inside the party (PZPR) and usual work in shipyard. The political criticism of this movie made it a target of censorship – it was suspended and cut against the will of director.

Release Date:1972-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:4

Between Wrocław and Zielona Góra

A commissioned film about the Lubin copper mine.

Release Date:1972-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

The Principles of Safety and Hygiene in a Copper Mine

Commissioned film about the conditions of safety and hygiene in the Lubin copper mine.

Release Date:1972-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Culling

Chief Forester Szymon from the observation tower sees a professor in the forest, walking through his district. Szymon and his wife Celina later engage in a disagreement due to his indifference and refusal to react on the professor’s illegal hunting. Celina would like to see Szymon as he used to be - rebellious, but Szymon prefers not to lean out. He is aware that everyone is responsible for the evil that permeates the country - some by their actions, others by their conformism.

Release Date:1972-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Factory

A documentary revolving around the Polish situation on an industrial level at the tail-end of the 1960s: it alternates between stark images at a metallurgic foundry and a board-room meeting among the various executives involved in its management.

Release Date:1971-06-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:21

I Was a Soldier

A group of veterans recount a horrifying experience when trapped in a minefield, resulting in each losing their sight.

Release Date:1971-06-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:14

Before the Rally

Ten days of preparation for the Monte Carlo rally. The two Polish drivers battle with the technical shortcomings of the Polish Fiat 125 and overwhelming bureaucracy. They did not finish the race. An allegory of the country's industrial and economic problems.

Release Date:1971-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:7

From the City of Lodz

This documentary explores the changing faces of the old Polish city of Lodz, and how its modernization, both physically and culturally, affects the older, more conservative residents, many of whom lived through World War II and are confused and somewhat resentful at the changes they're seeing.

Release Date:1969-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:17

The Photograph

After looking at a photograph from the end of World War II of two young boys holding guns, celebrating the liberation of Warsaw, a documentarian for Polish television tries to find the boys and discover how their lives have went.

Release Date:1968-01-25

Department:Writing

Job:Scenario Writer

Vote Count:8

Concert of Requests

A young couple leave a lake campsite on motorbike at the same time as a bus full of youths. The boy accidently loses a tent along the road which is picked up by those in the bus who offer a trade of the tent for his girl.

Release Date:1967-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:21

Hell and Heaven

A bus crashes and its passengers find themeselves in the afterlife, which they find has the not only the same set of rules as Earth, but also the same bureaucratic chaos.

Release Date:1966-09-19

Character:Saved Man (uncredited)

Vote Count:3

Don Gabriel

The first Polish film to discuss the failure of September 1939 Polish-German war, seen from the point of view of a university intellectual, fascinated by German culture, who decides to take active part in the conflict.

Release Date:1966-09-01

Character:Soldier (uncredited)

The Office

The insane government bureaucracy at a state pension window.

Release Date:1966-01-01

Department:Directing

Job:Director

Vote Count:43

Tramway

A boy leaves a party and gets on a passenger tram. Aboard, he shyly watches a girl, who soon falls asleep.

Release Date:1966-01-01

Department:Writing

Job:Writer

Vote Count:33

The Face

Portrait of an artist as a young manic. First, a montage of still photographs of an artist's face. Then motion. He stirs in sleep; he paints and expresses frustration. He looks for a light for his cigarette. He sketches, wads it up; makes tea; stares at his face in a mirror, then looks at canvas after canvas of self-portraits.

Release Date:1966-01-01

Character:The Artist

Vote Count:9

Kieślowski i jego Amator

Character:Self

Krzysiek Kieślowski

Character:Self

Mój Kieślowski

Character:Self