Director: Krzysztof Zanussi
2000
Tomasz Berg (Zbigniew Zapasiewicz), a senior doctor, works on the set of a film about Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and meets young people – the student Filip (Paweł Okraska) and the wardrobe assistant Hanka (Monika Krzywkowska) – as well as a monk (Tadeusz Bradecki), a production consultant. Berg is battling cancer and, despite poor prognosis, seeks help from doctors in Paris, using money from his ex-wife (Krystyna Janda). In his relationships with these new acquaintances, he confronts life and death: he debates Pascal’s wager, helps the mother of a sick child who later commits suicide, which costs him his job. He attempts a journey of a lifetime but deteriorates and ends up hospitalized as a patient. His young friends visit him; Berg gives them the keys to his apartment and prepares a supply of morphine, which he ultimately refuses after experiencing a metaphysical event. After his death, his body becomes a subject for medical students, and Filip gains his first experience in an autopsy, solidifying his choice to pursue a career in medicine.