BLIND CHANCE

Przypadek

Director Krzsystof Kieslowski / 1982 / Poland

'When Krzysztof Kieslowski finished the film in 1982, the curtain of martial law had already descended on Poland - so Blind Chance was immediately resigned to the shelves for the duration.

The story is constructed on three possible episodes in the life of young Witek, beginning with a train he twice misses (and once catches) in Lodz for Warsaw Since Witek is clearly at a crossroads in his life -the Student Uprising of the late 1960s forces him out of medical school - the question of what would have happened if he had made, or missed, that train forms the nucleus of each story.

In the first, he catches the train, meets a Communist of the old guard, and (through his influence) eventually joins the Party to espouse a cause the formerly imprisoned old man still strongly believes in until his dying breath

In the second vision, he misses the train, gets thrown into jail for quarrelling with a station guard, but while behind bars becomes acquainted with other students imprisoned for underground activities.

The third episode has Witek again missing the train, then deciding to resume his studies - which eventually lead to getting married and settling down to live a uithei comfortable bourgeois existence without any pohtial opinions at all.

Tightly narrated, with strong performances by the principals all the way down the line, Blind Chance is vintage Polish narrative cinema graced with social and political overtones and is one of Kieslowski's best films to date Indeed, this kaleidoscope of contemporary Polish reality during the past two decades should not be missed by film and history buffs ' - 'The Hollywood Reporter'

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