MBC Interactive Archive Project: 1960s
“The Eastern European New Waves”
KNIFE IN THE WATER
(Presented by the Miami Beach Film Society)
KNIFE IN THE WATER (NOZ W WODZIE) was the first feature film effort of Polish director Roman Polanski. Sportswriter Leon Niemczyk and his wife Jolanta Umecka invite baby-faced hitchhiker Zygmunt Malanowicz to join them on a yacht excursion. Sensing that his wife is attracted to Malanowicz, Niemczyk plots to humiliate the boy by showing off his own athletic prowess during the cruise. Roman Polanski’s debut film is a tense psychological thriller that helped give edge and modernity to the Polish New Wave of filmmakers.