Director: Wojciech Jerzy Has
1982
A film about an intimate confrontation with life, death, and personal emptiness. The main character is a professor of medicine, seriously ill, who, facing the inevitable end, reflects on his existence. He feels alienated from the world—his loved ones exhaust him, his students are merely a source of frustration, and the philosophy he once regarded as a guiding light now proves unreliable. The life that was meant to be full of meaning and achievements now seems empty to him. The only person who can touch his closed heart is a former protege, a young actress. Though still at the beginning of her journey compared to the professor, she also struggles with similar dilemmas: the indifference of the world, a lack of fulfillment, and the burden of existence. Their meeting, marked by the awareness of death and loss, becomes a moment when both begin to see what truly matters—even though they still cannot find answers to their own questions.