The Constant Factor

Krzysztof Zanussi's Constans (1980) follows a young man in search of moral consistency. He meets corruption at work and negligence at the hospital; his mother is dying and nobody accepts responsibility. His wish to climb in the Himalayas, as his father did, is the one fixed point he carries to the end. Zanussi works from a mathematical figure: the idea of a constant does not hold when applied to a life. The more the character insists on honesty, the more he loses, and the film shows that loss without promising anywhere that virtue will be rewarded. In Poland at the end of the seventies this was read as a direct critique of the system. The telling is cold and brief. There are no long speeches; scenes give what is needed and cut. The film won the Jury Prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at Cannes in 1980. Who it's for: viewers who like Eastern European cinema built around a moral question. Who it's not for: viewers looking for a character to attach to; Zanussi keeps his distance on purpose and never offers a way in.