Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease

Zycie jako smiertelna choroba przenoszona droga plciowa

Trailer

Directed by Krzysztof Zanussi

Poland, France, 2000

Drama

97
Polish
Portuguese & 10 more

The Films of Krzysztof Zanussi

Synopsis

The story of a doctor named Tomasz who questions his beliefs, faith and morality as the end of his life is near, so he makes all efforts to find dignity in his imminent death.

Our take

The final film—which swept the Polish Film Awards—in our Krzysztof Zanussi retrospective brings us to the post-Communist era of Poland today. An eloquent drama about the quest for spiritual harmony while facing death, it asks vital questions about how to accept the world as it changes around you.

Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease Directed by Krzysztof Zanussi

Show all (18)

Awards & Festivals

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

2001

Moscow International Film Festival

2000 | Winner: Golden St. George

Santa Barbara International Film Festival

2001 | Winner: Best Actor (Jury Award)

Polish Film Awards

2001 | 7 wins including: Best Film

2001 | 5 nominations including: Best Actress

Show all (18)

Cast & Crew

Articles from the Notebook

Examined Lives: The Films of Krzysztof Zanussi

A new retrospective showcases one of the most important Polish filmmakers.

Show all (43)

What are people saying?

Bodi's rating of the film Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease
Bodi

Una reflexión piadosa sobre nuestro mayor enigma,magistral
February 25, 2018 21:25
- 3
- 0
Rui's rating of the film Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease
Rui

Simple, real, touching.
February 24, 2018 19:33
- 4
- 0
Korial's rating of the film Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease
Korial

Profoundly religious. Zanussi masterfully avoids any convoluted discourses and the use of overly dramatic tones. The result, a monastic account of mankind struggle in this existence. A masterpiece which is a prayer chanted in tears.
January 24, 2019 18:59
- 5
- 0
FilmEdie's rating of the film Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease
FilmEdie

The process of reckoning with death begins (with) the process of reconciling ones life. The messy human passage through (& the centrality of) that subjective, dialectical process. Anyway, the living need to experience death to know life, so it’s a gift too, isn’t it? Even a sacrifice. W/ Parajanov-inspired interjections of/by the transcendent, a little Bergman, and an extraordinary performance by Zapasiewicz. 3.75
August 06, 2019 17:52
- 3
- 0
dionysus67's rating of the film Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease
dionysus67

Philosophically astute and humanly vibrant (mainly through the amazing performance of Zapasiewiz), this tale of angst in face of untimely mortality operates in the same universe as Kieslowski and, like him, works wonders. A materialist and nearly sterlized societal context is the focus, yet embalmed with a touch of God through the uncanny intuition of the painful mystery of mortality and the dignity of the body.
August 06, 2019 17:52
- 2
- 0
msmichel's rating of the film Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease
msmichel

Zanussi looks into the abyss with this wonderful film about mortality, faith and acceptance. Zbigniew Zapasiewicz is spectacular here as an aged physician suffering from inoperable cancer who must accept his fate and struggle with the concept of faith. The script is perhaps Zanussi's most approachable and certainly his most humanistic.
January 24, 2019 19:00
- 2
- 0
josé neves's rating of the film Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease
josé neves

PC. The film within the film is a Catholic parable that reproduces itself in the film much less directly, by levels of repudiation of the ultimate path that leads believers to their abode: death. The whole film is more a discussion and fear's disturbance than an acceptance, and what Zanussi magnificently performs, like some Ermanno Olmis' films, is to build a materia(l) exystence in(to) a non-materia/faith system.
January 24, 2019 19:00
- 7
- 0
mpho3's rating of the film Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease
mpho3

"A moving and exceptionally mature meditation on lack of faith at the borderline between life and death. Fronted by a marvelous performance from Zapasiewicz ... the ironically titled LAAFSTD succeeds in being both affecting and wryly humorous, with a mystical-philosophical quality untapped in European cinema since the late works Kieslowski. - Derek Elley, Variety. 4.5 stars
March 23, 2018 18:09
- 0
- 0