Dekalog
2026-07-15
Inspired by the "Three Colours" trilogy, we continue with Krzysztof Kieślowski. This time we went with a series based on the Dekalog: "Dekalog". An anthology set in the late 1980s in Poland that tells 10 different stories relating to the Ten Commandments. And because each episode is its own thing, I decided to treat it like 10 short movies. Which they are.
Hence, a thread.
One
"Dekalog: One" is a story of a father raising his son with a help from father's sister. The mother is said to be abroad but is not present in person. Not gonna spoil, and let me focus on interesting items instead. They have a number of computers at home, which was unusual back then. Yeah, I remember. There is also a segment about computer being intelligent, and this got old fantastically in the context of growing AI. Sort of shows we're not experiencing anything new.
Two
"Dekalog: Two" is a story of a doctor and a wife of one of his patients. Whereas father and son from episode 1 had a lot of computers, here the marriage in question has a lot of hi-fi equipment. Later we learn that the wife is a musician, so maybe it makes sense. The doctor lives a live like out of "Perfect Days" or "The Waiter". There is an uncredited voice cameo from Piotr Fronczewski.
Generally
On a general note, all the stories happen in the same large apartment complex. And by apartment, I mean those rather small flats that communist Poland had to offer. There is something cosily familiar in them. But I'm getting nostalgic.
Additionally, while each story has different actors, there is a character or characters played by Arthur Barciś. He played a mysterious man in a coat in the first story and a doctor or orderly in the second one. Maybe he's supposed to be like an angel. We'll see.
Stylewise
I was curious about the visual side, because one of the criticisms (these people) was that it shows the ugliest possible Poland of the time. This was one of the reasons I wanted to see. Now, could be a nostalgia filter, but it is very much like I remember it, although I was five at the time. I realised that I expected the 1970s harshness I knew from other Polish movies. This would mean Poland improved.
Colour-wise, I expected more sepia but got a rather greenish palette.
But jokes aside, it's still something that could be visually used to build some Polishcore backroom liminal kind of space. So, not bad.
2026-07-16
Three
"Dekalog: Three" is a story of a man suddenly visited by his former lover who drags him into some sort of game. All on the Christmas Eve day. They end up wandering through an empty city in the dead of night. Lack of people and quasi-foggy visuals of Warsaw in December gave off liminal-space vibes. Delicious. So far, this was my favourite.
Artur Barciś plays in this episode a tram driver in a scene where two main characters are driving their car in a collision course. A rather stupid game of chicken, because the tram won't budge. But anyway. Barciś's character looks on the incoming car unfazed and doesn't even slow down. Come think of it, he would match perfectly as a supernatural being in some horror. Or a Chigurh. Maybe it will emerge over time what his role in the series is. He might just be a mysterious someone.
2026-07-17
Four
"Dekalog: Four" is a story of a woman and her father. When father leaves for work for a couple of days, she opens a letter that her mother wrote to her before her death, when the woman was only 5 days old. More twisty than the previous episode.
Artur Barciś's role becomes clearer to me. He shows up whenever the character of the story has to make an important decision that will weight on their life. This time he swam up in a kayak. Kind of out of the blue.
2026-07-22
Five
"Dekalog: Five" tells actually two intertwining stories. One is about a young man who kills a taxi driver. The other one is about his lawyer. Their paths cross twice. Krzysztof Kieślowski has this subtle metaphysics which are at play here. The lawyer has a moral dilemma and his case matches it. For some reason, there was a filter on the screen in this episode: bright in the middle and forming a dark circle around it. Can't figure out why. And because there were two stories, Artur Barciś shows twice.
The murder depicted in this episode heavily reminded me of "Zapis zbrodni" that I saw in May.
What I found kind of funny was that the cab driver was not depicted as a nicest guy on Earth. No. He's kind of nasty; like when he scared a dog. Therefore, there is a temptation to think that there's something karmic in his death. TV Tropes calls it "an asshole victim". I think it was deliberate, to murk waters.
Six
"Dekalog: Six" is a story of a young man with a crush... on a woman whom he stalks. Of course, there was no concept of stalking in 1989, so instead of going to the police, the woman starts a game with the man. In a post-modern twist worthy of David Lynch or Wong Kar-wai, the narrative changes its focus from the man to the woman at some point. Artur Barciś shows up twice as well this time, but because the young man has two choices to make.
Generally, again
And I have to say again that the depicted Poland is not as half ugly as I was promised. :D This is clear by now.
In "Dekalog: Five", there is a scene where a car stops to let a kindergarten teacher with children, and my wife said, "It could have been us back then." So. Familiarity, not ugliness.
But still. The tall apartment blocks where the action is set give off strong and imposing vibes.
2026-07-23
Seven
"Dekalog: Seven" comes with a twist. It tells a story of a young woman who kidnaps her little sister. Or is it? I figured out what's going on pretty early on, but it's still touching.
And now the twist: Artur Barciś doesn't appear in this episode due to technical difficulties, so it was hard to know which decision was marked as problematic. A bit like "Fargo", season 5, that eventually didn't connect to the others. I was waiting till the end.
2026-08-03
Eight
"Dekalog: Eight" is a story of ethics professor who gets suddenly confronted by a moral dilemma she faced years ago. A dilemma that defined her later life. At this point, the series start running out of big names. The only known actors are in the secondary roles. Not that it's an issue. Artur Barciś returns as a student during a lecture. In this episode, the characters discuss the story from "Dekalog: Two", which also felt very Fargo-like. Krzysztof Kieślowski was a genius, truly.
2026-08-04
Nine
"Dekalog: Nine" sees known actors again. But that's besides the point. The episode tells a story of a man diagnosed with impotence. By a really crude doctor. This leads to suspicions of the wife's fidelity. The finale was way more dramatic than in the earlier stories.
Artur Barciś shows up pretty early this time, but it's a decoy, as it's to introduce to us his bike that is shown later, during his proper, decision-related appearance.
Van Den Budenmeyer
An interesting thing is that there is composer mentioned, Van Den Budenmayer. Turns out he was made up by Zbigniew Preisner and used also in "Three Colours" and "Double Life of Veronica". Krzysztof Kieślowski impresses me more and more with each gimmick like that.
2026-08-05
Ten
"Dekalog: Ten" tells a story of two brothers who reconnect after their father's death and discover a large collection of postal stamps worth fortune. As often is, it brings more problems than benefits. A bit more criminal story, and with Jerzy Stuhr and Zbigniew Zamachowski playing two brothers, just like they did in "Three Colours: White". An interesting hook is that the father was shown in the episode 8. With the stamps. No Artur Barciś this time, but intentionally.
2026-08-16
I wanted to write something about "Dekalog" as the whole, too. While it works in separation for each movie, it's also very rich into various interconnections: there are characters from other stories popping in, sometimes only mentioned; there is the overarching angel-like character of Artur Barciś; and there is space shared between all the stories. It doesn't create any superstory above the other ten, but ties it altogether. Solid filmmaking.