The law should not imitate nature
but improve upon it.
DEKALOG: FIVE People invented the law to govern their social relations.
We are what we are as a result of laws...
those we observe and those we break.
People are free...
their freedom limited only by the freedom of others.
Punishment?
Punishment is a form of revenge.
Especially when it aims to inflict harm
and doesn't prevent crime.
But in whose name does the law exact revenge?
Is it really in the name of the innocent?
Do the innocent truly make the laws?
Piotr Balicki?
Come in, please.
Throwing away rags?
They can come in handy.
Someone threw it at me.
- Did it hit you? - No.
Seen anyone around with these?
- Is the movie any good? - No, it's boring.
What's it about?
Love. But it's boring.
Besides, it's not showing again till this afternoon.
What are you doing?
Pulling out gray hairs.
You know where I can get a cab?
A taxi.
Castle Square.
The Warsaw Philharmonic played a gala concert
organized by the Ministry of Art and Culture.
Here you are.
I hesitate not because I can't answer,
but because I've been asked that question twice before.
The answer was easy on the entrance exam.
Then, four years ago, in this same building...
I wasn't so sure anymore.
Delivery!
Beata, hurry up.
Hello.
Would you like a portrait?
No.
Which way is Castle Square? - Straight ahead.
Perhaps this profession would allow one
to correct the mistakes of that juggernaut
we call the administration of justice.
Or at least to try.
But perhaps most important of all is that...
I'll be able to meet and understand people
I'd never meet in any other profession.
Go away! You're scaring the pigeons.
Go away!
Swine!
Are you free?
You can see I'm washing it.
We'll wait. It's cold.
Everyone wonders if what they do
has any meaning.
I'm afraid that that meaning gets harder and harder to find.
We doubt more and more what we're doing,
or even what we'd like to do.
I believe it's a decline in our criteria...
or worse, our values.
Ma'am, we forgot to charge for the vegetables.
Care for a ride somewhere, Beata?
Excuse me!
- Hello. - Yes?
I have...
You here to hang pictures?
No.
I thought you were.
I have...
a photograph.
Could you enlarge it?
The crease will still be there.
That's okay.
All right.
Excuse me.
Can you really tell from someone's picture
if they're alive or not?
Someone's been pulling your leg.
It's about how the convict deters others.
The convict becomes the deterrent.
Simply put, it's frightening people.
Article 50 of the Penal Code discusses this.
I don't appreciate your ironic tone.
It's a questionable justification for cruel punishment.
I'm not alone in that opinion. And it's often unfair.
The Warsaw team is our pride and glory!
Want it?
My wife made it.
Here you go.
- Tea. - We don't have tea.
- What do you have? - Coffee and pastries.
A coffee and a pastry, then.
- What kind? - A cream puff.
Not that one.
That one there.
"Since Cain,
the world has neither been intimidated nor ameliorated
by punishment."
I'm pleased to inform you that you passed your examination.
After your four-year internship,
you are now a fellow lawyer.
Driver!
Are you by any chance
going to Mokotów?
- No. Wola. - We're in a hurry.
Mokotów.
Where were they going?
Wola.
Could you roll the window up a bit?
It's cold.
Left here.
Straight ahead is better.
I prefer this way.
As you wish.
Stop. We're here.
The road's closed ahead. - I wasn't going any farther.
Jesus...
Hiding place...
money...
my wife...
money...
all alone...
Please...
I beg you...
I'll tell you of a brave little golden lion
Whose courage grew greater every day
All the grown-up lions told him
That a lion must always be lionhearted
I understand very well
And I like to be brave but sometimes...
This court is adjourned.
Is it over, Mr. Balicki?
It's over.
Yes, it's me.
I lost.
Yes, utterly.
I have no idea.
Maybe I'll go for a walk.
No, don't come.
How are you feeling?
Did you get some sleep?
Good.
Bye.
Excuse me.
Jacek.
Excuse me, Your Honor.
I know this isn't customary practice.
Indeed...
it's not.
I wanted to ask you, now that it's over:
Would it have made any difference if he'd had
an older, more renowned lawyer to defend him instead?
Absolutely not.
Perhaps my words didn't...
Perhaps if I had...
Your summation...
was perhaps the most eloquent indictment
of capital punishment that I've heard in years.
But the sentence couldn't have been any different.
You were faultless,
as a lawyer and as a human being.
Despite the difficult circumstances,
I'm glad to have met you.
- Good-bye. - In this case...
one could perhaps have wished for a better judge.
What happens now is my responsibility.
Is that any consolation? - No.
Perhaps this doesn't really matter...
but when that boy described...
how he'd wrapped the rope around his hand...
in that café...
I was there. - Where?
In that café, at that very moment.
A year ago. I'd just taken my bar exam.
Perhaps I could have done something.
You're too sensitive for this profession.
- Too late to change that. - True.
You've aged a bit today.
The warden will be with you soon.
- How are you? - It's too hot.
Hello.
The curtain's stuck.
Clean up in here.
Come in.
- Everything's ready, Warden. - Thank you.
Thank you.
I expected as much. - Me too.
Counselor...
you'll have half an hour.
Half an hour.
All right. - Come in.
Yes, sir?
Escort this gentleman.
- Hello, Counselor. - Hello.
I'm going to see him. He wants to talk to me.
Quite a difficult duty.
Yes, it is.
Prosecutor, it's the first time I...
I hope it will be your last.
Counselor, this isn't the best moment,
but we so rarely meet.
My congratulations.
I hear you had a son.
Yes, just recently.
Thank you.
You wanted to see me.
Yes.
Have you seen...
my mother?
I have.
Was she crying?
Yes.
Did she ask you...
to tell me anything?
No.
She just cried.
Have a seat.
Could you...
see...
my mother again?
Yes, of course.
Afterwards?
I thought I'd ask you because...
as they led me to the paddy wagon that day...
you called out my name.
I called out to you...
I wanted...
I'm almost 21...
but when you called my name...
my eyes filled with tears.
I said in court...
I didn't listen much in court.
Not until you called out to me.
They were all...
against me, just like everyone here.
They're against what you did.
It's the same thing.
So you want me to see your mother.
Yes...
to ask her to bury me next to my father.
There's one spot...
Can I be buried in a cemetery?
Yes.
The priest they sent said I could.
Naturally.
Next to my father
is another plot.
It was supposed to be for my mother.
Ask her to let me have it.
Yes, sir.
Yes, Warden.
The warden asks if you're finished.
Not yet.
You were saying?
I don't remember.
You were saying there were three burial plots.
That's right. Three.
Marysia's there, and my father...
and then there's a third spot.
Marysia's been buried there five years now.
Five years ago she was run over by a tractor
out where we lived in the country.
She was in sixth grade.
She was...
12 years old.
In sixth grade.
I was with a friend of mine who drove a tractor.
A buddy of mine.
We'd been drinking.
Vodka and wine.
Then he went and ran her over...
in the meadow by the woods.
There was a meadow...
next to the woods.
Here in prison I've been thinking...
if she were alive, maybe everything...
Maybe I'd never have left home.
Maybe I'd have stayed.
She was my sister.
I had three brothers but just one sister.
I was her favorite.
She was my favorite too.
Perhaps everything would have been different.
Maybe...
Maybe it wouldn't have come to this?
Yes.
Maybe I wouldn't be here now.
The warden and prosecutor want to know if you're finished.
You tell the prosecutor I'll never say I'm finished.
You'll never say you're finished?
Never.
We bought the plot...
Do you have the sentence?
It's all there.
Let's go.
You can leave your briefcase here.
After you.
- Bring him out. - Yes, sir.
The prosecutor says to finish up.
Among my things
is a receipt from a photo shop.
I left a photo to be enlarged,
but I couldn't pick it up.
Could you take it to my mother?
What's the photo of?
Her First Communion.
I took it from Mother's things before I left.
It got creased.
Let's go.
Counselor...
I don't want to go.
Please...
Name?
Łazar, Jacek.
Date of birth?
March 17th, 1967.
Parents' first names?
Jan and...
Łucja.
I'll now read the sentence.
"In the name of the People's Republic of Poland,
this 27th day of November 1987,
after hearing the case of Jacek Łazar,
accused of having,
on the 16th of March 1987, in Warsaw,
assaulted, robbed, and murdered Waldemar Rykowski,
the court found him guilty,
and in accordance with Article 148, Paragraph 1,
and Article 44, Paragraph 2, of the Penal Code,
sentenced him to death
and stripped him of all civil rights in perpetuity.
The Supreme Court upheld the sentence.
The State Council rejected his appeal for clemency.
The sentence shall therefore be carried out."
Cigarette?
I'd prefer unfiltered.
His hands!
Carry out the sentence.
Keep going?
Let him go!
Keep going!
Stop!
I can't stand it!
Directed by
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Music by
Art Direction by
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