Views of a Retired Night Porter

In Krzysztof Kieslowski's poignant 1977 documentary short, NIGHT PORTER'S POINT OF VIEW, the protagonist, a typical exponent of the communist system, reveals his sometimes hilarious, sometimes shocking attitudes. Driven by paranoia, misanthropy and a profound distrust in the human race, the night porter's favourite pastime is to control others, even when off-duty ... These were the people, once feared in Communist Poland, on which the regime depended. In 2005 Austrian filmmaker Andreas Horvath finds the now retired night porter alive and relatively well in a Warsaw suburb. He lives on a minimum pension in a characterless one-room apartment, the most memorable feature being a glaring wallpaper depicting a Hawaiian idyll. His views have not changed much in 30 years – but Poland has, and so, without the support of a corrupt regime, the former night porter's tirades seem strangely out of place. This film is a swan song to a long gone era and one of its unflinching representatives.