Kieslowski on Kieslowski

Krzystof Kieslowski untimely death in 1996 robbed cinema of one of its great visionaries. Decalogue, The Double Life of Veronique and the Three Colours trilogy earned Kieslowski his reputation as a world-class film-maker. He was notoriously reticent, and even dismissive of his work and talent, but these frank and detailed discussions showed a passion for film-making that animated a life disrupted by both Hilter and Stalin and the legacy these figures left in Eastern Europe. His struggle to work as a film-maker mirrors the struggle of Poland to reassert its identity. In 1989, when the Berlin Wall collapsed and Eastern European states overthrew the oppressive Soviet burden, his orientation gravitated towards France. Moving between Poland and France, Kieslowski created some of the most important cinematic works of the Nineties.