Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
In Poland in the 70s of the last century, society was very unstable, and a number of murders occurred in a quiet town.
For a time, the people in the town were panicked and filled with an atmosphere of terror, and the relationship between the people and the government became unprecedentedly tense.
In order to reassure the people and maintain public order, the government has invested a lot of police resources to investigate the case, but there has been no progress.
When the 11th victim appeared, investigators were under unprecedented pressure.
The victim was the niece of the first secretary of the Polish Labor Party, and the killer wrote a letter threatening to "celebrate" the 30th anniversary of the Polish People's Republic with 30 lives.
Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
The police who rushed to the hospital in a hurry brought in a young and capable lieutenant Janus to take full charge of the investigation of the case.
He threw out a million-dollar bounty to solicit clues, used the most advanced computer data comparison and analysis technology at the time, and even invited British experts to conduct psychological portraits of criminals.
But no other clues were given other than a 42-yard footprint.
Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
While comparing the list of people at the scene of the crime with the list of suspects, Janus stumbles upon an overlapping name - Kalić.
This is a consummate suspect, Kalić knows one of the victims, has also been at the scene of the crime, wears size 42 shoes, and has a history of domestic violence.
Coincidentally, after Kalić was detained, the serial killings stopped.
Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
As a result, all sectors of society have identified him as the real murderer, and even if he repeatedly denies it, it is in vain.
The official announcement was made quickly:
The real culprit of the "Vampire Serial Murder Case" has been arrested!
Janus has become a detective, about to be promoted and raised, and his future is bright.
"I Am a Murderer"
Phoenix Satellite TV Movie Channel will be broadcast at 08:20 on April 15
The above is the plot from the Polish film "I Am a Murderer".
Fans often call "I Am a Murderer" the Polish version of "Memories of Murder", and the facts of the two films do have many similarities with the background of the times, but the focus of the movies is very different.
"Memories of Murder" is based on case reasoning, and in "I Am a Murderer", the film is only half an hour old, and the "murderer" has been arrested.
And what the director really wants to express starts from this moment.
I am · murderer
Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
Yanus solved the case, was promoted and raised, moved into a single-family villa, the first secretary personally sent a color TV, and his son proudly wrote in his essay that "Dad is a big hero".
But there was still a faint fear in his heart - all the clues pointed to Kalich, but after all, there was no evidence of his guilt.
In order to confirm the murder, he induced Kalich to confess, and at the same time falsified evidence, and even suggested that Kalich's wife would get a million bonus if she betrayed her husband.
Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
When the chain of evidence was about to be forged, Janus received a letter from the real murderer:
"I'm sorry, I can't kill people recently because of health issues, but I'll make it up later. ”
This confirms Kalic's innocence and at the same time tests Kianus's humanity.
If the letter is exposed, Janus will lose everything he has just gotten, and even his reputation will immediately turn against each other.
Faced with the helpless Kalić, he remained silent and chose to secretly withhold the letter.
In the first round of the trial, witnesses took turns to describe the "facts" they knew, and they wished that he would be executed immediately.
Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
Even Kalić's youngest daughter, whom he loved the most, was instigated to fabricate testimony against him.
Before the second round of trial, Kalić was pushed into insanity and began to question himself:
"Did I kill the women?"
On April 26, 1977, Kalić was hanged, and Janus did not return his innocence.
On the same day, television was shown showing reports on the first secretary of the Polish People's Republic of Katowice, Eduard Girek, visiting workers on Labor Day.
The last set of shots of the movie is very shocking.
Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
The facial model of "Murderer" Kalić was exhibited in Poland's notorious murder exhibition hall, and "Hero" Janus came to see his exploits.
As he gazed at Kalić's face model, his face twitched and trembled.
And when the camera turns to the facial model, Kalich's expression seems to be confused and unwilling, and his eyes seem to be full of tears.
Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
Movie prototype
"I Am a Murderer" is based on a real case in Poland, and the city of Katowice, Poland, where the incident took place, happens to be the director's birthplace.
In the 70s of the 20th century, there was a series of vicious killings in the city of Katowice, in which at least 14 women were killed, one of whom was the niece of the then leader of the ruling party.
Under pressure to solve the case, Polish police arrested a peasant named Zisław Mačwiecki and hanged him.
The prototype of Kalić in the film, Zisław Machwiecki
His siblings were seen as complicit and were sentenced to years in prison and hanged, respectively.
In fact, there is no direct evidence that Zisław is the murderer.
The only clue is the murder notes he wrote in prison, which recorded the details of the crime.
The prototype of Kalić in the film, Zisław Machwiecki
But Zisław dropped out of school at an early age and could not write at all.
After Zysław was hanged, new victims still appeared, and all the truth was suppressed by the Polish government at the time, and the criminal policemen involved in the case did nothing until they retired.
The film is directed by Maciej Pepřica, and this is not the first time he has filmed real events.
"Life is so good" directed by Maciej Pepřica
Previously, the one he directed had a score of 8.4 on Douban, which was widely praised by fans.
"I Am a Murderer" participated in the main competition unit of the 20th Shanghai International Film Festival and finally won the Best Director Award.
It is not about the search for the real culprit, but about an elaborate "murder" triggered by a serial murder.
The film was made very restrained, just trying to objectively restore the social status quo in Poland at that time.
Leaving the thinking to the audience is much more clever than many movies with the same theme.
The characters in the film are not face-painted, especially the character of Janus is very successful.
Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
In the first half of the film, Janus is full of a sense of justice and sneers at public officials who handle cases at will.
But when he is confronted with power and interests, he shows the selfish and cowardly side of human nature to the fullest.
However, his persuasion of Kalić to confess his guilt was not entirely utilitarian, and he did sincerely hope that Kalić would be treated leniently.
Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
At the end, he had the opportunity to threaten the judge with Kalić's death, but he did not violate his conscience.
It's just that he is a tiny cog in a huge institutional machine, and his momentary kindness cannot save Kalić.
There is a plot design in the film that is very interesting.
Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
At the beginning of the film, Janus wrestles with his son without forgetting the principle of integrity, calling it a competition between men.
And in the second half of the film, when the male protagonist is lost between principles and interests, the youngest son easily breaks his father.
Stills from "I Am a Murderer".
The "I" in "I Am a Murderer" is very deceptive.
When I first saw the title, I couldn't help but think that this film was a monologue by the criminal Kalich.
It wasn't until the end of the film that the audience really understood the meaning.
The poster design of the film is also remarkable.
Maciej Pepřica's "I Am a Murderer"
The overall style of the poster resembles an ancient wanted poster, covered in dark red, with irregular lines as the dividing line, and two different faces are pieced together to create an eerie face.
The left half of his face is the suspect Kalich, his hair is disheveled, and his image is unkempt, but there is a trace of sincerity and simplicity in his eyes.
The right half of his face is police officer Janus, every strand of his hair seems to have been carefully chosen, his eyes are full of calculation, and the deep nasolabial folds and frowning brows reveal that this person is not simple.
"Making a Murderer" poster
This poster is not difficult to reminiscent of the documentary "Making a Murderer", which tells the true story of the American version of "I Am a Murderer".
Stephen Avery is a silly kid in Manitowok County, Wisconsin, USA, who has an IQ of less than 70 and does not have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
In 1985, at the age of 22, Stephen was convicted of rape and imprisoned
In 1985, a woman in a small town was violently sexually assaulted.
Even though 22 people provided an alibi for Stephen and the victim's description of the offender did not bear much resemblance to Stephen himself, the police arrested him immediately.
In order to prove that Stephen is a criminal, the police even drew a portrait of the suspect in his likeness.
It took 10 years for Stephen to be wrongfully imprisoned before the real sexual assault was caught elsewhere.
In 2007, Stephen was convicted of murder and imprisoned
The local police station chose to remain silent when they learned that the wrong person had been arrested, and Stephen was not rehabilitated because of this, but continued to suffer eight years in prison.
According to a paper by Samuel Gross, a law professor at the University of Michigan in the United States, 4 percent of prisoners executed in the United States are later proven innocent.
When society urgently needs a murderer to appease people's hearts, the "murderer" is very likely to appear.
We are not unfamiliar with this kind of absurdity, and unjust, false and wrongful cases are emerging one after another all over the world.
Also in 2016, Hungary made a film "Suffocation" based on real events.
Suffocation by Arbal's Sopset
In 1957, a woman was killed in the small town of Matterford, Hungary, and the police arrested Lati without an alibi.
Ratti pleaded guilty after being tortured to extract a confession, but the murder of women in the town did not end while he was in prison.
Years later, the real culprit was arrested, and the Hungarian regime at the time, in order to prove the reliability of the law, had to convince the population that the state could not have caught the wrong murderer.
So even if it turns out that Lati is innocent, he can only live his life with a stain.
With the improvement of the judicial system, old unjust, false and wrongful cases around the world have gradually surfaced, and more and more film and television works and related reports have been produced.
In 2005, under the impetus of Zheng Chengyue, Henan Business Daily published an article "Two Murderers in One Case, Who Is the Real Murderer?", pointing out that Nie Shubin was suspected of being wrongfully killed.
CCTV's "Rule of Law Online", "Today's Statement" and other programs also reported on the "Nie Shubin case" that has been wronged for 21 years in the form of documentaries.
In addition, in the early days of the "Baiyin City Serial Murder Case", criminal investigation technology has not yet made a breakthrough in the detection of the case.
Murders have occurred one after another, the cases have gradually fermented, and the pressure to solve the cases has become more and more intense.
But even so, the police have adhered to their principles, not wronged any innocent person, not spared any criminals, and carried out investigations day after day.
After the relay of 8 directors, the murderer was finally arrested after 28 years.
Justice may be late, but it will never be absent.
Source: Phoenix TV Movie Channel
Editors: Fol Mo, Tea