Andrzej does not know what to believe and at the road junction, where they would turn one way to return home and another to go to the police station, the car does not move.įilm professor Charles Derry notes that Knife in the Water is atypical from other thrillers due to the fact that it 'represses the usual violence promised by the thriller, it ends its narrative with violence's opposite: a scene of total stasis, in which no action is perfectly acceptable to the husband protagonist.' Production Development Krystyna tells him that the young man returned and she was unfaithful. He wants to go to the police to report the young man missing. Krystyna sails back to the dock, the man jumps off and goes on his way before Andrzej appears and takes charge again. He boards the yacht and Krystyna tells him he is as bad as Andrzej but sexual attraction wins out and they have sex, off screen. When the young man realizes that Andrzej has gone he comes out from hiding behind a buoy on the lake and swims to the yacht. Andrzej and his wife quarrel about what to do, and Andrzej swims to shore to fetch the police.

Andrzej and his wife search for him, but cannot find him and assume that he has drowned, since earlier he said that he could not swim. A fight ensues between Andrzej and the hitchhiker and the latter falls into the water.

The title refers to the major turning point in the film when Andrzej taunts the young man with the latter's treasured pocket knife, which is accidentally lost overboard. Meanwhile, tension gradually builds between Andrzej and the hitchhiker as they vie for the attentions of Krystyna. The young man accepts the offer, and, not knowing much about sailing, must learn many hard lessons from Andrzej. When they arrive at the lake, instead of leaving the young man behind, Andrzej invites him to go sailing with them.

After nearly hitting him, Andrzej invites the young man along. Knife in the Water has garnered acclaim from film critics since its release, and is one of Polanski's best-reviewed works.Īndrzej ( Leon Niemczyk) and Krystyna ( Jolanta Umecka) are driving to a lake to go sailing when they come upon a young man ( Zygmunt Malanowicz) hitchhiking in the middle of the road. The film was nominated for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and is Polanski's only Polish-language feature to date. Its plot follows a husband and wife who are accompanied on a boating trip with a young male hitchhiker, who spurs a number of escalating confrontations between the couple. Knife in the Water ( Polish: Nóż w wodzie) is a 1962 Polish psychological thriller film co-written and directed by Roman Polanski in his feature debut, and starring Leon Niemczyk, Jolanta Umecka, and Zygmunt Malanowicz.

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