FILM REVIEW

A fatal sexually transmitted disease is probably not the way most

Southern Californians describe life. New Yorkers, maybe. Some Poles

apparently do, as proven in Krzysztof Zanussi’s “Life as a Fatal Sexually

Transmitted Disease.”

The film tells the story of Tomasz (Zbigniew Zapasiewicz,) an aging

physician, who is confronted with his own mortality when he finds out

that he has cancer.

Years of exposure to death through his work seem to have numbed

Tomasz’s feelings and he shocks those closest to him with his detached

descriptions of rotting inside.

But at the same time, he’s clearly struggling to accept the fact that

his days are numbered.

“As the English say, ‘We’re all in the same boat,”’ he tells the

mother of one of his dying patients. “But still I try to paddle

upstream.”

Disgruntled and cynical, Tomasz begins to flirt with religion and

tries to make up for his indifference to those who care about him as he

nears death.

If you’re looking for a nice and comforting afternoon at the movies,

this film is probably not going to do the trick. But it does do a good

job conveying that even the most blase people among us eventually realize

that there’s more to us than just a fatal disease.

Get ready for a dark 99 minutes. And when it’s over, there’s always

the possibility for a walk on the beach.

o7 “Life as a Fatal Sexually Transmitted Disease” will screen 4:30

p.m. Wednesday at Edwards Island 7 Cinemas.

f7