Timeline

On 19 March the Director’s funeral takes place in Warsaw. Alongside his closest family and his Polish friends and acquaintances, it is attended by Marin Karmitz, Juliette Binoche and Irène Jacob. The homily is delivered by Fr Prof. Józef Tischner.

On 13 March he dies of a heart attack during surgery.

On 12 March he enters the Central Military Hospital in Warsaw for bypass surgery.

On 22 February he takes part in a debate on his own work, held in Poznań.

Together with Zbigniew Preisner and Krzysztof Piesiewicz he designs an open-air spectacle for the Acropolis. He learns that he has been awarded the European Media Prize, but he will not live to receive it.

In August, while staying at a summer house in Masuria, Kieślowski suffers a massive heart attack. He is taken first to the hospital in Szczytno and then transferred to Warsaw.

After convalescing, Kieślowski resumes his classes with students at the Lodz Film School.

In May, in Poręby in Masuria, Kieślowski’s long-standing assistant Krzysztof Wierzbicki shoots a biographical film about the maker of “Dekalog”, entitled “I’m So-So...”.

In Warsaw the German documentary filmmaker Andreas Vogt records conversations with Kieślowski.

In the summer Kieślowski teaches in Amsterdam, at a workshop for actors organised by the European Film Academy.

Early in the year, after a show of solidarity by several dozen leading American filmmakers (among them Jodie Foster, Martin Scorsese, Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro), “Three Colours: Red” is admitted to the Oscar race. It receives three nominations: for directing, screenplay and cinematography. Soon afterwards Kieślowski is admitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He also receives the French Order of Arts and Letters.

An outline takes shape for the next triptych by Kieślowski and Piesiewicz: “Heaven”, “Hell” and “Purgatory”. On a skiing trip to Switzerland the director breaks his arm.

In April, in the Danish capital, he receives the Sonning Prize awarded to him by the University of Copenhagen, and in Wittenberg, from the hands of Johannes Rau, the German “Bibel und Kultur” award.

At the Cannes International Film Festival “Three Colours: Red”, tipped for the Palme d’Or, receives no award at all. The jury gives the main prize to Quentin Tarantino’s brutal “Pulp Fiction”.

In Italy, France and the United Kingdom books devoted to “Dekalog” and “Three Colours” are published, along with numerous analyses of the Polish director’s work as a whole.

The French television channel La Sept/Arte produces two documentary films featuring Kieślowski: “Cinema Lessons” and “Conversations on Dekalog” (directed by Dominique Rabourdin and Andrzej Wolski).

The first book about Kieślowski appears in Poland: “Kieślowski bez końca” (Kieślowski Without End), which includes a record of conversations held with the director by S. Zawiśliński.

He takes part in screenings and retrospectives of his films in the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Scandinavia and other countries.

After returning to Poland he takes up teaching at the Lodz Film School. He receives honorary membership of the British Film Institute. He runs classes on directing courses in Western Europe (among others in Helsinki and in Italy). He supervises the student films of several Lodz Film School students.

He supports the founders of Camerimage, the international festival of cinematographers, in Toruń.

In February “Three Colours: White” wins the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. There, too, Kieślowski takes part in a much-discussed debate with Wim Wenders.

Production of the “Three Colours” film trilogy. Shooting takes place in France, Poland and Switzerland. The crew is international. MK2 sells the triptych to 53 countries.

In September, at the Venice International Film Festival, “Three Colours: Blue” receives the main prize, the Golden Lion.

After the festival Kieślowski unexpectedly announces that he will make no more films. In later interviews he repeatedly confirms that the decision is irrevocable: “I do not want to be a slave to my profession. It seems to me that I have received more from life than was due to me... At some point one has to say: enough. I think that moment has come.”

In London the first edition of the director’s “spoken” autobiography, “Kieślowski on Kieślowski” (ed. Danusia Stok, Faber & Faber), is published.

He receives the French Officer’s Cross of the Order of Arts and Letters.

He settles in Paris for a longer stay, writing screenplays and preparing to make the “Three Colours” triptych, whose principal producer is Marin Karmitz and his company MK2.

Premiere of “The Double Life of Véronique”. At the Cannes festival the film receives the FIPRESCI prize, and its leading actress, Irène Jacob, wins the award for best actress. In the USA Kieślowski receives the Independent Spirit Award and the prize of the National Society of Film Critics (NSFC).

In March he signs a contract with Leonardo de la Fuente to direct “The Double Life of Véronique”. After seeing Kieślowski’s “Dekalog”, Ken Wlaschin of the American Film Institute in Los Angeles calls him the “Citizen Kane” of our times. Promoting and presenting his films, Kieślowski travels widely across almost all of Europe, as well as to the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and Latin America. In the autumn he begins shooting “The Double Life of Véronique”, filmed in France and in Poland (mainly in Kraków).

In February Kieślowski (together with Krzysztof Piesiewicz) receives the prestigious Italian Premio Flaiano award for the screenplays of “Dekalog”.

In October a major retrospective of his films is held in Turin. It is there, too, that the first monograph devoted to his work is published.

In September the world premiere of the “Dekalog” series takes place at the Venice International Film Festival. Although presented out of competition, it is hailed as the greatest event of the festival and receives the FIPRESCI prize. It is the first in a whole series of awards soon to be given to Kieślowski at other prestigious festivals (among them Montreal, San Sebastián, Dunkirk, São Paulo and Chicago). Polish Television will later sell “Dekalog” to distributors in more than 75 countries. In the autumn Kieślowski travels with “A Short Film About Killing” and “A Short Film About Love” across the USA and Latin America.

In May he sits on the jury of the Cannes International Film Festival. Following the general election of 4 June, Poland forms its first non-communist government, headed by Tadeusz Mazowiecki.

The Round Table talks bring systemic political change to Poland. In this period Kieślowski edits the final episodes of the television series “Dekalog” and completes his last documentary film, “Seven Days a Week”, made at the instigation of the Dutch producer Dick Rijneke as part of the “City Life” series.

In December Kieślowski receives the Felix, the award of the European Film Academy, for “A Short Film About Killing”.

In October a widely publicised presentation of “A Short Film About Killing”, “No End”, “Camera Buff” and “Blind Chance” takes place in Paris. The critics announce: “Kieślowski the revelation”, “A true discovery: Kieślowski”.

In September the second of the cinema versions of “Dekalog”, “A Short Film About Love”, receives the Jury Prize for directing and the FIPRESCI prize at the San Sebastián festival.

In May, at the Cannes International Film Festival, the film receives the Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI prize. Kieślowski is a guest at numerous festivals, among them Rotterdam, Toronto, Montreal and Istanbul.

A review of Kieślowski’s films is held in Mülheim (Germany). In March the Polish premiere takes place of the first cinema version of “Dekalog”, “A Short Film About Killing”.

In January 1987 Polish Television decides to put into production a series of ten television films entitled “Dekalog”. Kieślowski also obtains the consent of the cinema authorities to make two of the episodes (V and VI, “A Short Film About Killing” and “A Short Film About Love”) as cinema versions. Shooting begins in March. The Catholic monthly “Przegląd Powszechny” publishes a lampoon attacking the director. Some of his former collaborators refuse, for various reasons, to work with him on “Dekalog”. Production of all the episodes of “Dekalog” lasts, with short breaks, almost two years. “Blind Chance”, after six years on the shelf, is finally allowed into Polish cinemas. It is shown mainly in film discussion clubs (DKF), however. It is also presented out of competition at many festivals, among them Cannes, Amsterdam and Moscow. At the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdańsk, Kieślowski receives the award for the screenplay of “Blind Chance”.

Because of Krzysztof Zanussi’s frequent trips abroad, he effectively runs the Tor film unit. He is artistic supervisor of the feature debuts of, among others, Magda Łazarkiewicz, Tomasz Szadkowski and Maciej Dejczer. Together with Edward Żebrowski he teaches on film courses in Switzerland and later also in Austria. The screenplays of “Dekalog” arouse controversy among their reviewers.

He takes part in the Amsterdam film festival. In June the official premiere of “No End” takes place. The film is distributed in selected cinemas only. Polish critics of every political persuasion attack the director sharply. Audiences receive the film more warmly. Some time after the hostile reception of “No End”, Kieślowski declares: “I want to be independent of all forces (that is, of the authorities, the Church and the opposition - note by S.Z.). What is more, if I am to take myself seriously as a director, I must be independent. Such a stance implies solitude: to be with no one.” With Krzysztof Piesiewicz he writes the screenplays of the film “Dekalog”.

He prepares to make “No End”. He meets Zbigniew Kowalski, the composer of the Kraków cabaret Piwnica pod Baranami (who will soon change his name to Preisner), and proposes that they work together. Several times he turns down the authorities’ offer to head a new film unit. With a delegation of Polish filmmakers he travels to Syria, among other places. In the summer and autumn he makes the feature film “No End”, which refers to the events of martial law in Poland. The co-writer of the film is Krzysztof Piesiewicz, the music is by Zbigniew Preisner.

Together with Agnieszka Holland he is invited to teach at directing seminars at the Kulturhaus Bethanien in West Berlin. The seminars are organised by Henryk Baranowski, Bettina Wilhelm and Dorota Paciarelli. Kieślowski will teach there until 1990.

He takes part in several meetings of the film community concerning the fate of the suspended Polish Filmmakers Association. He intervenes with the authorities on behalf of directors staying abroad (among them Krzysztof Zanussi and Agnieszka Holland). With Michał Żarnecki he works on the sound for “Blind Chance”. He writes articles on political events in the country (for DiP) and analyses of the situation of Polish cinema. In the autumn he tries to shoot a documentary about the political trials held under martial law. He withdraws from the project when it turns out that he is admitted with his camera to selected hearings only. At the turn of November and December, Kieślowski meets the lawyer Krzysztof Piesiewicz for the first time. They will soon begin working closely together on screenplays.

On 13 December martial law is imposed in Poland. In the first days after it is announced, Kieślowski tries to organise protest actions with his friends.

In August the director’s mother is killed in a car accident.

The monthly “Dialog” (issue 1/1981) prints an essay by Kieślowski, written in the autumn of 1980, a few weeks after the birth of the independent trade union movement Solidarity, in which he formulates his new artistic programme: “to look widely, to see deeply”. In the spring he begins shooting the cinema film “Blind Chance” and the television film “A View from the Window” (final title “Short Working Day”). He makes them at the same time. Both will be stopped by the censors. During the Solidarity upsurge he takes part in the work of the Committee for the Rescue of Cinema. He travels to Japan, where his documentaries are shown for the first time (in Yamagata, among other places).

He completes the documentaries “Talking Heads” (special mention at the Oberhausen short film festival) and “Station”. He writes the screenplays of “Blind Chance” and “A View from the Window”. He works with Hanna Krall, the well-known reporter of “Polityka”. At the Chicago International Film Festival “Camera Buff” receives the Golden Hugo. The film is also presented at the New York festival. In connection with this Kieślowski travels to the USA for the first time, for a few days.

In November he is elected vice-president of the Polish Filmmakers Association (Andrzej Wajda becomes president at the same time). He will hold the post until 1981. He is appointed deputy head of the Tor film unit, run by Krzysztof Zanussi. In the autumn he begins teaching students at the newly established Radio and Television Faculty of the University of Silesia in Katowice, where he will continue to teach for the next four years. For Television Theatre he directs “The Card Index” by Tadeusz Różewicz. He travels to Paris for a screening of “Camera Buff”. He writes analyses of the situation in Poland for the semi-legal discussion group “Experience and the Future” (DiP), to which he is invited by Witold Zalewski. He will work with DiP in the 1980s as well, during the martial law period.

In September he receives the Grand Prix at the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdańsk for “Camera Buff”.

In July “Camera Buff” wins the Gold Medal at the Moscow International Film Festival. In Poland Kieślowski is regarded as the leader of the “young cinema” and of the current known as the “cinema of moral anxiety”.

Two of the director’s best-known documentaries are made: “From a Night Porter’s Point of View” and “Seven Women of Different Ages”, later given awards at many international documentary festivals (among them Kraków, Lille and Nyon). In the autumn he begins shooting “Camera Buff” in Kraków.

The national daily “Sztandar Młodych” places Kieślowski on its annual list of “20 outstanding young Poles”. At the 14th International Short Film Festival in Kraków, Kieślowski receives the Grand Prix awarded for the documentary “Hospital”. At the Stary Theatre in Kraków he directs the play “Curriculum Vitae”, based on his own idea drawn from the screenplay of the documentary of the same title. He teaches students of the acting faculty of the drama school (PWST) in Kraków.

In September Kieślowski’s feature debut for the cinema, “The Scar”, receives the Jury Prize at the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdańsk. The film reaches cinemas only in December, after almost a year of skirmishes with the censors and the cinema authorities. “The Scar” arouses controversy among critics as well, and finds little favour with audiences: little more than 100,000 viewers will see it in cinemas. “The Calm”, a television film shot by Kieślowski shortly after “The Scar”, is stopped by the censors. It will not be shown until after the events of August 1980. In the autumn Kieślowski makes the intervention documentary “I Don’t Know”, screened only sporadically thereafter. For Television Theatre he directs William Gibson’s play “Two for the Seesaw”.

In March the weekly “Polityka” honours Kieślowski with its annual “Drożdże” (Yeast) award, given for “causing creative ferment”. At the annual Lubuskie Film Summer in Łagów he receives the “Don Quixote” award of the Polish Federation of Film Discussion Clubs, given for his body of work and in particular for the film “Personnel”.

In November “Personnel” wins the Grand Prix at the Mannheim International Film Festival. Kieślowski travels to Western Europe for the first time. The success of “Personnel” at Mannheim brings further honours: the award of the weekly “Film” for directing debut of the year, the prize of the jury and of the journalists at the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdańsk (1976), and the Andrzej Munk Award given by the Lodz Film School.

In June, at the 15th National Short Film Festival in Kraków, Kieślowski’s documentary “Curriculum Vitae” receives the “Bronze Lajkonik” award, and several months later it is given a special mention at the Review of Social and Political Films in Łódź. The film provokes wide discussion: it is debated after screenings in film discussion clubs and... at Party meetings. Kieślowski belonged to no political party. In the 1970s he was active only in the Documentary Film Section and the Young Filmmakers’ Circle of the Polish Filmmakers Association.

In January, at the Wrocław Opera, the director begins shooting “Personnel”, a television feature film from his own screenplay, inspired by his time at the State Secondary School of Theatre Techniques and his work in a theatre wardrobe.

“Curriculum Vitae”, another of Kieślowski’s documentaries, is made. In the spring, in the Kielce region, he shoots the television documentary series “Żeromski’s Land” (from a screenplay by Barbara Wachowicz). Two episodes are completed, “The Legend” and “Education” (never broadcast by Polish Television).

A breakthrough year in Kieślowski’s career as a documentary maker: “First Love” receives the Grand Prix at the 14th National and the 11th International Short Film Festival in Kraków.

He makes further documentary films: “Bricklayer”, “X-Ray” and “First Love” (“Bricklayer” is stopped by the censors and will not be shown until 1981). He begins working with the Tor film studio, run by Stanisław Różewicz. It is there that he makes his television feature debut, “Pedestrian Subway” (originally the debut was to be an adaptation of Kazimierz Orłoś’s story “The Camel”, but for reasons of censorship the project was never realised).

In August, Marta, the daughter of Maria and Krzysztof Kieślowski, is born.

Kieślowski receives his first flat of his own (in a new block on Czerniakowska Street in Warsaw). He soon submits a proposal for a documentary entitled “The Housing Estate” which, like several other ideas of his from that time, is accepted neither by the management of the Documentary Film Studio nor by television. He makes a short, sarcastic and ironic documentary about a funeral home, “Refrain”, as well as two commissioned films: the promotional “Between Wrocław and Zielona Góra” and the instructional “The Principles of Safety and Hygiene in a Copper Mine”. For Television Theatre he directs a half-hour production, “Szach szachowi”, after Stefan Zweig.

At the 11th National Short Film Festival in Kraków “I Was a Soldier” receives two special mentions, while “Factory” wins the “Głos Robotniczy” prize for the film “most engaged with contemporary problems”. Kieślowski is among the “angry young men” who formulate the manifesto of the “new documentary”. The magazine “Ekran” publishes a text in which Kieślowski criticises the mechanisms prevailing in television and calls for an agreement between the Documentary Film Studio and television. A loud dispute between the “new documentary makers” and the well-known critic Zygmunt Kałużyński plays out across the pages of the weekly “Polityka”. He accused the younger generation of documentary makers, and Kieślowski in particular, of formal disorder, eclecticism, a lack of “balance of vision” and a lack of technical maturity. “We are interested in the places where everything appears to work properly, but where an unspoken sickness lies hidden... We want the material at our disposal, the living, real human being, to become the stuff of moral, ethical and philosophical generalisation”, declared Kieślowski, Zygadło and Kosiński in the polemic. In the autumn it was they who, with a large team of collaborators, tried to capture the “real problems of the working class” on the wave of “renewal”. Their hour-long documentary “Workers ’71” was, however, cut by the censors, and the authors’ version was never distributed.

In April he is given a post as assistant director at the Documentary Film Studio. He makes the documentaries “Factory” and “Before the Rally”.

In February he defends his diploma thesis, “Film and the Dramaturgy of Reality” (supervisor: Prof. Jerzy Bossak). He is awarded the degree of Master of Arts.

At the Documentary Film Studio in Warsaw he makes his diploma documentary, “From the City of Łódź” (tutor: the director Kazimierz Karabasz). He works with the army film studio Czołówka, where he prepares the documentary “I Was a Soldier”.

In November he takes his first job, at the Cooperative Film Studio, where he makes short advertising films. With colleagues he puts forward the idea of founding the Karol Irzykowski Young Filmmakers’ Studio (the idea will not be realised until 1981).

In June he completes his coursework. For television he shoots the documentary “The Photograph”.

He takes part in the student protests of March 1968, defending, among others and without success, the professors of Jewish origin who are being expelled from the school.

In June, in the area around Łódź and near Warsaw, he shoots his student fiction film “Concert of Requests”.

On 21 January in Warsaw he marries Maria Cautillo. The wedding reception is held in the flat of Irena Lorentowicz, a friendly lecturer from the State Secondary School of Theatre Techniques.

In October he meets Marysia Cautillo, a second-year student at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Łódź. A few weeks later he proposes to her.

In the summer he does a placement at the Documentary Film Studio in Warsaw. He assists on the shooting of the feature film “Kontrybucja”. Under the guidance of the director Wanda Jakubowska and the cinematographer Kazimierz Konrad he makes his first student films, “The Tram” and “The Office”. At the student film festival in Warsaw “The Office” receives a special mention. It is the first award of Kieślowski’s career.

He successfully completes his first year of studies. He takes a great many photographs. Some of them he manages to sell to local newspapers, and one makes the cover of the national weekly “Kobieta i życie”. He assists on the documentary “Ab Urbe Condita”, directed by Jan Łomnicki.

In July he applies to the Lodz Film School for the third time. He receives the student’s book he has longed for. In the autumn he moves to Łódź, where he will live and study for the next four years.

In February he takes a job as a cultural affairs officer at the District National Council in Warsaw-Żoliborz.

In his free time he writes poems and short stories and works with amateur filmmakers. With an 8 mm camera he makes short films, which he will later present at the entrance examinations for film school.

In September, on Lake Kisajno near Giżycko, he completes a sailing course and receives his sailor’s certificate. Eleven years later he will qualify as a yacht helmsman.

In July he sits the entrance examination for the Lodz Film School for the second time and again is not admitted.

In the spring he abandons his studies at the teacher training college. He lives with his mother and sister in a rented flat in Otrębusy near Warsaw. He travels to Łódź for courses preparing candidates for the film school entrance examinations. His teachers suggest to him that he is not a good candidate for a director. He earns extra money as a dresser at the Współczesny Theatre in the capital, attending to leading Polish actors. Years later some of them (Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Aleksander Bardini, Tadeusz Łomnicki) will appear in his films.

In September he begins studying art education at the teacher training college at 72 Saska Street in Warsaw.

In July he sits for the first time the entrance examinations for the Directing Faculty of the Leon Schiller State Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź. He is not admitted. In the summer he sails in Masuria. With friends he buys an old boat and names it after a famous playwright: “Sławomir Mrożek”. He uses various means to avoid compulsory military service and obtains a deferment.

In June he passes his school-leaving examination. He obtains a diploma as a theatre technician.

With his friends Janusz Skalski and Roman Filutowski he shoots his first film miniature on a borrowed amateur camera, giving it the title “Lost Illusions”. He takes part in school theatre productions.

Krzysztof is passionate about theatre and motorbikes. He is expelled from the boarding house for keeping a home-built motorbike in his room. He earns extra money painting the flats of acquaintances with friends. He finds his way onto the set of “Samson”, directed by Andrzej Wajda, but the workings of the film world, a suspect business at the time, do not appeal to him.

On 22 February, in Sokołowsko, Roman Kieślowski, Krzysztof’s father, dies at the age of 49. After her husband’s death Barbara Kieślowska decides to leave Sokołowsko and settles in Otrębusy near Warsaw, closer to her children.

From his second year at the State Secondary School of Theatre Techniques he studies in the decorative painting department. He meets Bożenna Skwara. They become an “inseparable couple”. Their love, as their friends judged it, “brightened the life of the school” for several years.

He is given a place at the Dziekanka, the boarding house for arts schools on Krakowskie Przedmieście. He shares a room with the future well-known painter Wojciech Siudmak.

In October he moves to Warsaw. He is admitted to the first year of the State Secondary School of Theatre Techniques, where his relative, the painter and set designer Kazimierz Pręczkowski, is deputy head.

In the 1956/57 school year he attends the first year of a general secondary school in Wałbrzych. He lodges in nearby Zagórze. Following a conflict with his chemistry teacher he gives up further study at the school.

In June Krzysztof finishes primary school in Mieroszów. At first he does not intend to continue his education. Later, at his father’s suggestion, he tries to carry on at the fire service school in Wrocław. After a few months he abandons it. “I understood there that I cannot do the sort of things that go with regulations, with a bugle, with a whistle”, he will admit years later.

After Roman Kieślowski returns from a stay of many months at the sanatorium in Siewierz, the Kieślowskis settle, as it will turn out for good, in Sokołowsko, in a house at 22 Główna Street. Krzysztof attends the primary school in Mieroszów (six kilometres from Sokołowsko). His father works only occasionally. His mother runs the welfare department of the Sokołowsko sanatoria.

He changes his places of residence, his schools and his surroundings. He “wanders” between Strzemieszyce, Sokołowsko and the preventoria in Rabka, Wisła and Bukowina Tatrzańska. From there he regularly writes letters and cards to his parents and to his grandmother Maria in Strzemieszyce.

In the winter and spring Krzysztof stays at the tuberculosis preventorium in Rabka. He comes to Strzemieszyce for the holidays.

The Kieślowskis settle in Sokołowsko for a short time. Krzysztof attends the local primary school. His father continues to struggle with tuberculosis and cannot practise his profession.

In June he successfully completes the second year at Primary School No. 1. During the holidays the Kieślowskis move for a short time from Głubczyce to Leszczyny near Rybnik. Because of his advanced tuberculosis, Roman Kieślowski has to give up work and begin hospital treatment. In the autumn he goes to the sanatorium in Siewierz. Krzysztof stays more and more often with his paternal grandmother in Strzemieszyce. It is there that he goes to the cinema for the first time. He continues his education at the local Primary School No. 1.

On 18 May, in the parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Głubczyce, Krzysztof takes his First Holy Communion.

Krzysztof’s father supervises the construction of industrial buildings in Kędzierzyn-Koźle. He comes home to Głubczyce for Sundays, and then he looks after the children. He often takes them out on his bicycle.

In September he becomes a pupil at Primary School No. 1 in Głubczyce. As he often suffers from a sore throat and colds, teachers come to teach him at home for almost the whole of the 1948/49 school year.

On 6 June he receives his nursery school leaving certificate, on which his “intellectual level” is assessed as “very good” and his particular talents are given as “drawing” and “construction”.

He attends the public nursery school on Kręta Street. He spends the holidays with his mother and sister in the mountains (in Lądek-Zdrój) and by the sea.

In June, in the parish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Głubczyce, Krzysztof Kieślowski is baptised.

In the spring of 1945 the Kieślowskis move to Głubczyce, a small town of a few thousand inhabitants in Opole Silesia. They settle in a villa left behind by its German owners. Krzysztof’s father finds work first at the Repatriation Office in Głubczyce and then in local construction companies.

In March 1944, in Strzemieszyce, Krzysztof’s sister, Ewa Maria, is born. Soon afterwards Roman Kieślowski senior, Krzysztof’s paternal grandfather, dies. As the director wrote later: “I never knew my grandparents”.

In February, as the First Ukrainian Front approaches the borders of pre-war Poland, the Kieślowskis leave Skałat. They move to the borderland of Silesia and the Zagłębie region, to Strzemieszyce (today a district of Dąbrowa Górnicza), where Krzysztof Kieślowski’s paternal grandparents, uncle and aunt were then living.

In the winter the Kieślowskis move from Delatyn to Skałat (today in Ukraine). Roman Kieślowski supervises drainage works there. His wife looks after their son.

The father of Barbara Kieślowska, the engineer Roman Szonert, is deported to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he is put to death. Fearing reprisals, and also because of a lung disease, Roman Kieślowski seeks permission to leave Warsaw. In mid-1942 he manages, together with his wife and one-year-old Krzysztof, to reach the District of Galicia within the General Government. For a year the Kieślowskis live in Delatyn (today in Ukraine). Krzysztof’s father works on the regulation of the River Prut.

On 27 June, in German-occupied Warsaw, Krzysztof Kieślowski is born. His father is the 31-year-old Roman Kieślowski, an engineer; his mother is the 27-year-old Barbara Kieślowska (née Szonert), an office worker.