"Actor: Miroslaw Baka"

• The Peasants | Blu Ray | (17/06/2024) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From the Academy Award nominated director and producers of Loving Vincent, comes a stunning and epic new animation based on the Nobel Prize winning novel. A young woman, Jagna, is determined to forge her own path within the confines of a late 19th century Polish village, rife with gossip, feuds and inequality. When Jagna finds herself caught between the conflicting desires of the village's richest farmer, his eldest son and other leading men of the community, her resistance puts her on a tragic collision course with the community around her.

• 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 Killing | Blu Ray | (29/07/2019) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Krzystof Kieslowski took several years to complete his mammoth project of filming his Dekalog, each infused with a very personal motivation and dealing with conflicting opinions relating to the imperfections in both the ancient and modern legal codes. 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.

• 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

• Where Eskimos Live | DVD | (01/12/2003) from £4.99   |  Saving you £1.00 (20.04%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In the course of his travels Vlado meets Sharkey (Bob Hoskins)a rough-hewn Englishman who claims to be a caseworker for UNICEF. Actually Sharkey is rounding up children for a black market adoption ring in Poland. Sharkey persuades Vlado to join him assuming the boy would fetch a fair price and Vlado unaware of Sharkey's true intentions says yes. Sharkey and Vlado soon become unlikely friends but Sharkey soon learns getting Vlado out of the country may not be so simple; Sharkey