Grazyna Szapolowska, Maria Pakulnis, Aleksander Bardini

It's 1982: Poland is under martial law, and Solidarity is banned. Ulla, a translator working on Orwell, suddenly loses her husband, Antek, an attorney. She is possessed by her grief, and Antek continu...( read more  read more... )es to appear to her. She seeks to free herself in her work, in her relationship with her son, in sex, and in hypnosis. In a subplot, Ulla refers the wife of one of her husband's clients Darek, a jailed Solidarity strike organizer to Labrador, a world-weary, aging attorney, who works to free Darek by various political manipulations and psychological ploys.

Flixster Users

80% liked it

551 ratings

Critics

89% liked it

9 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 44 min.

Directed by: Krzysztof Kieslowski

Release Date: June 17, 1985

Invite friends to see

Stats: 25 reviews

Photos


None yet... Got one?

Your Rating



clear rating

Flixster Reviews (25)


  • April 14, 2009
    The candlelit graveyard flows into the panorama of city lights, the dead now mere pinpricks of light in the passing of time. We observe the mundane artefacts of family life, the routines which still go on though this family's lifestyle has been fractured by the death, a few days ...( read more)ago, of the husband. His ghost watches on, unable to leave, unable to believe in the pain of separation.

    Wife and son struggle to cope, to establish their own routines, their own method of coping. They can believe in the pain, they just have to find ways to suppress it. Routines. Keep busy. She has to tidy up her husband's affairs - he was a lawyer, one who had been involved in political cases. This is a Poland about to break out of the stranglehold of Soviet domination, a Poland beginning to assert its own independence and affirm its own political dissonance. Law is political; politics is embodied in law.

    The wife has to make decisions about a case her husband had been handling. Can she become involved? Should she trust this political case to an old colleague? And her life goes on, troubled now by the arrival of an old suitor. She is still a very desirable woman, an intelligent woman, an educated woman, a woman with a future, not least in her son. And yet the past haunts and claws at her. She realises how much she loved her husband, how much it hurts to lose him.

    And this is a Poland with a future, a Poland which might only find consummation of the future in rediscovering the values of its past and throwing off the cloak of bereavement and widows weeds in which it is shrouded. And this is a legal system which has values, which can argue and assess, not simply process.

    A beautifully worked piece, emotional, forthright, intense. Kieslowski's world, here, has none of the glamour of the 'Three Colours'. This is a plain, bland world, where decisions have to be made, and where the oppression of the little decisions can be as significant as the political and legal denial of the right to make decisions or follow conscience. This is an absorbing narrative into which you are drawn and with which you can sympathise - a film you can watch again and again and absorb different nuances.

    The DVD is excellent, with highly informative interviews and the bonus of a Kieslowski documentary. Excellent value.
  • November 13, 2008
    that was light blue with a bit of purple, among white shadowes and still amaizing, as his other works
  • July 5, 2008
    this is maybe the 15th Kieslowski film i've seen in 3 months, and was the one i went into knowing the least about- and in a way it is a personal favorite. almost all of the other films i've seen were better films, better stories, but there's something about the sadness, pace and...( read more) performances in this one that i'm real into.
  • September 5, 2007
    Compelling ideas almost come together in the end. Half-baked Kieslowski is a bit uneven. Still, there are some undeniably fascinating existential moments.

Comments


This board looks lonely. Be the first to talk about "No End (Bez konca)" !

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

More Like This


This list looks lonely.
Add a suggestion!

Facts


No facts approved yet. Be the first

No End (Bez konca... : Watch Free on TV


Movie Quizzes


No quizzes for No End (Bez konca). Want to create one?

Video Clips


No video clips yet. Want to upload one?

Recent News


No recent headlines. Got one?

Most Popular Skin


No skins yet. Interested in creating one?