Knife in the Water

Middle-aged cocksureness, arrogance and incomprehension versus teenage revolt, with a young woman as a sort of arbiter, is the theme of this lively and inventive little pic.

Polanski's first feature, a model of economic, imaginative film-making which, in many ways, he has hardly improved upon since.

Polanski arrived on the scene with an almost super-human knack for tension; one of the great directorial debuts in cinema's history.

The cast is superb, with the non-professional Zygmunt Malanowicz judging his swaggering, youthful brio to perfection.