MOVIE · 1962

Knife in the Water

DramaThriller94 min

On the way to an afternoon sail, married couple Andrzej and Krystyna nearly hit a young hitchhiker and bring him aboard their yacht instead. Leon Niemczyk's Andrzej quickly turns the outing into a contest, needling the stranger and flaunting his authority, while Krystyna (Jolanta Umecka) becomes the focus of the young man's attention. Confined to a small boat and the open water around it, Roman Polanski's debut strips the story down to three people, a few pointed exchanges, and a tightening struggle over class, pride, and desire.