Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease

^director Krzysztof Zanussi
^screenplay Krzysztof Zanussi
^{director of photography} Edward Kłosiński
^music Wojciech Kilar
^with Zbigniew Zapasiewicz, Krystyna Janda, Tadeusz Bradecki, Monika Krzywkowska, Paweł Okraska, Szymon Bobrowski, Aleksander Fabisiak
^{awards (selection)}   Eagle, Polish Film Award, for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Music, Best Postproduction (Marek Denys) and for Zbigniew Zapasiewicz for Best Actor In Leading Role and for Krzysztof Zanussi and Iwona Ziółkowska for Best Producers, 2001
 Main Prize, the Golden Statuette of St. George, at the International Film Festival in Moscow, 2000
 Grand Prix, Golden Lions for Best Film, award for Zbigniew Zapasiewicz for Best Actor in Leading Role and Journalists Award at the 25th Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia, 2000
 Main Prize, ‘Jańcio Wodnik’ at the National Film Art Festival ‘Provincionality’ in Września, 2001
 Golden Film (Złota Taśma), award of the Polish Film Association, 2001
 Golden Duck (Złota Kaczka), ‘Film’ magazine Readers Award, 2001

[DIALOGUE FROM THE FILM]

Marek: Doctor, you know Pascal’s wager: to live in a way as if God existed. For if it turns out there is no God, man will lose nothing. Tomasz: What do you mean nothing. He loses everything he could do with impunity. Everything that is pleasant is forbidden. Marek: In return for what is forbidden – God is offering himself. Tomasz: Well, but to take advantage of it one has to believe, and you, Reverend, yourself say that faith is a grace. And what should I do if this grace passes me by?

JERZY PŁAŻEWSKI, ZIP CODE TO HEAVEN [KIERUNKOWY DO NIEBA], ‘KINO’, 2000, NO. 9

The ultimate human issue, dying, is the theme Zanussi tackled earlier. In ‘The Spiral’, (1978) Jan Nowicki also impersonated a terminally ill person, yet the part was set in a completely different tonality. That film was a futile protest (…) against passing away, degenerating into rebellion and aggression. In this one, Zbigniew Zapasiewicz creates his doctor Tomasz much more reflectively, generously, with a multitude of hues and tinges (…). A sceptic at the beginning, Tomasz gradually opens up on a broader understanding of existence (…). The key scenes about Tomasz’s coming to terms with Eternity called for utmost subtlety (…). The breath of metaphysics (…) is dosed confidentially, in whispers, for Zanussi refuses to engage in agitation.