Metrograph

Kieślowski’s first collaboration with both composer Zbigniew Preisner and co-screenwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz was made in the immediate aftermath of the repression of Lech Wałęsa’s Solidarity trade union via martial law in 1981, a keeningly sorrowful work in which the ghost of a deceased lawyer, Antek (Jerzy Radziwilowicz), observes helplessly the plight of his last client, a worker imprisoned for political activities (Artur Barciś), now receiving questionable consul from one of Antek’s former colleagues (Aleksander Bardini), as well as the ever-deepening mourning of his widow, Ula (Grażyna Szapołowska). Perhaps Kieślowski’s most overtly political film, No End was subject on its release to attacks from the Communist authorities, the Catholic church, and Solidarity representatives… If we are to measure the greatness of a film by the stature of its enemies, it must be very great indeed.

Distributor: Janus Films

Introduction by Rafał Syska, film historian, Professor at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, museum curator and former Director of the National Centre for Film Culture in Łódz