The Cinematheque

“Modest yet superb … The narrative of this paradocumentary film contains a metaphysical element, which perhaps foretells the ​‘art film poetics’ of Kieślowski’s later films.”

Marek Haltof, The Cinema of Krzysztof Kieślowski: Variations on Destiny and Chance

Krzysztof Kieślowski described this made-for-TV drama as ​“the story of a man who wants very little and can’t get it.” He wrote it specifically for actor Jerzy Stuhr, who had appeared in The Scar, the director’s first theatrical feature, and would become a frequent Kieślowski collaborator. Completed in 1976 but banned by the state for several years due its portrayal of an illegal labour strike, The Calm concerns ex-con Antek (Stuhr), freshly tasting freedom after a three-year sentence and now resolved to walk the straight and narrow. His humble aspirations—a wife, a family, a job—are imperilled when his allegiance to the employer who hired him clashes with the solidarity he shows for his exploited coworkers. Kieślowski stressed that the film isn’t political in nature, but a product of a political system inescapably shaping the lives of its people. Here, the illusion of choice, a common Kieślowski motif, predetermines the impending tragedy.

In Polish with English subtitles

“The Calm perhaps more than any of Kieślowski’s early fictions anticipates themes and ideas that he would later explore more fully.”

Film at Lincoln Center

“It’s a film about our country, about our system where you can’t get what you want, even if all you want is a television and a wife.”

Krzysztof Kieślowski