THE DECALOGUE

One of the most ambitious, monumental and remarkable achievements of filmmaking of the past decade is The Decalogue, Kryzstof Kieslowski's adaption of the Ten Commandments. The project arrives with numerous prestigious international awards, including the inaugural European Film Prize and the jury prize at the 1989 Venice Film Festival.

The idea for a series of contemporary dramas based around the Ten Commandments originated from Kryzstof Piesiewicz, who co-wrote the screenplays with Kieslowski. The project was partly funded by Polish television. Additional money for the 10-hour project came from West German television and the Polish Ministry of Culture for whom Kieslowski agreed to make two feature films based on the fifth and sixth Commandments (A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love, respectively) derived from the original one-hour versions.

It is not only its scope that makes The Decalogue such an extraordinary achievement; Kieslowski's aim was to use the Ten Commandments to reflect upon complex moral dilemmas in modern, urban contexts. "The series has nothing to do with religion," he says. "The god of the commandments exists as a possibility, but the stories are very human. It's more to do with the general rules by which we run our lives. Some of these rules are harder than others, for instance the first three commandments, which deal with a person's relationship to God, or - in a secular sense - to oneself are, I feel, much harder."

The scriptwriters' purpose is to pose, rather than to resolve, issues of contemporary morality. The episodes are not straightforward allusions to the Commandments; the project is more refined and complex. The characters in each successive episode face situations that could be resolved by various means, yet in most cases the filmmakers stop short of providing any solution, leaving the dramatic outcomes wide open. As unfashionable, though urgent, moral issues might be in this day, Kieslowski's intention is for the viewer to reflect upon such matters and seek the answers for him or her self.

Each episode of The Decalogue is self-contained; Kieslowski even employed different casts and cinematographers on each episode to give the series an emotional range and diversity of style and look. The series features the work of leading Polish cinematographers, such as Piotr Sobicinski (whose short Ratcatcher was screened at the MFF) whose father, Witold, is Poland's leading preferred cameraman, and Witold Adamek, Andrej Wajda's favourite photographer.

The episodes share much in common. All are set in drab yet exceedingly average and common housing estate in Warsaw, "blocks that in fact house many of Poland's best-known TV and film stars," wryly commented Sean French in Sight & Sound. There is the unexplained appearance of an enigmatic stranger, dressed in a white suit, at a key moment in each drama.

Most remarkable, however, is the sensibility at work in The Decalogue. There is a sense of deep-set pessimism about Kieslowski's characters, who more often than not are depicted as individuals on the path on an inexorable destiny. There is a quintessential moment in the extraordinary Decalogue 5, when a young boy who will eventually kill another man refuses to let a gypsy read his palm, while the lawyer who later will defend him has his palm read by his girlfriend, who predicts a bright and challenging future.

There are also downbeat circumstances of life in contemporary Poland that Kieslowski details with pin-point accuracy. "In Poland today you can talk about more than before," he told a Polish press conference in 1989, "but nothing has changed. The queues outside furniture stores start one month before new deliveries."

The Decalogue, which is being screened in its entirety at cinemas throughout the world, will no doubt cement Kieslowski's reputation as one of the boldest filmmakers in contemporary cinema. It may also put to rest those lingering assumptions that television is cinema's poorer sibling. Eloquently scripted, tightly edited and visually striking - Kieslowski's use of filters, colours and framing in the Fifth Commandment should be a lesson to contemporary cinema's over-reliance on dialogue to explain what audiences need to know - cinematic qualities have not been sacrificed in this made-for-television production.

There is a degree of irony in the fact that although Kieslowski has been making films for more than 20 years, his work is far less known than that of his contemporaries such as Andrej Wajda, Roman Polanski and Jerzy Skolimowski, with whom he attended Lodz film school during the 1960s and are notable for their absences in the present climate.

Yet Kieslowski is not a stranger to MFF audiences. Two of his films, Camera Buff (1979, MFF '80) and Blind Chance (1982, MFF '88) have screened at previous MFFs. Apart from numerous shorts and documentaries, he has also made Personnel (1975), The Scar (1976), No End (1984), A Short Film About Killing (1987), A Short Film About Love (1988), and The Decalogue (1989).
- (PKa)

Decalogue 1
53 mins
(I am the Lord thy God. Thou Shalt have no other God but me)
A father (Henryk Baranowski) and his son (Wojciech Klata) are working on a computer. One day they try to figure out the thickness of ice on a nearby lake and find it is ready for skating. But later that night, the father hears a cry; "The ice has broken."

Decalogue 2
57 mins
(Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain)
A woman (Krystyna Janda) contemplates having an abortion while her husband (Olgierd Lukaszewicz) lies mortally ill in hospital. When she reveals that she is pregnant by another man, she resolves to abort the pregnancy if her husband lives, but to have the child if he dies.

Decalogue 3
57 mins
(Honor the Sabbath day)
When Janusz (Daniel Olbrychski) and his family attend Christmas Eve services, a familiar face appears in the crowd. It is Ewa (Maria Pakulnis), Janusz's former lover, who later shows up on his doorstep and talks him into helping her find her missing husband.

Decalogue 4
55 mins
(Honor thy father and thy mother)
While her father (Janusz Gajos) is away on a trip, a young girl, Anka (Adrianna Biedrzynska), discovers an envelope with the inscription 'To be opened after my death.' She opens it, only to discover another envelope addressed to herself. The knowledge she gains will forever change her relationship with her father.

Decalogue 5
57 mins
(Thou shalt not kill)
Jacek (Miroslaw Baka), a troubled young man, wanders aimlessly through town; Piotr (Kryzstof Globisz), who has just passed his barrister's examination, reflects upon his new calling; a gruff taxi driver (Jan Tesarz) spotlessly cleans his taxi preparing to start work. Only one of these characters will survive the day in this stark, haunting and disturbing interpretation of the Fifth Commandment. (Kieslowski also produced an extended, feature-length version of this episode, known as A Short Film About Killing.)

Decalogue 6
58 mins
(Thou shalt not commit adultery)
Tomek (Olaf Lubaszenko), a young postman, has fallen in love with Magdelena (Grazyna Szapolowska) who lives in an apartment opposite his. He spies on her (like the James Stewart character in Rear Window), intercepts her mail and telephones her without saying a word. Fascinated by the Peeping Tom, she tries to seduce him in an attempt to prove that true love does not exist. The cat and mouse game takes a sinister turn when Tomek decides to show Magda the depth of his devotion. (Like A Short Film About Killing, this has also been made and released as a longer theatrical film, A Short Film About Love.)

Decalogue 7
55 mins
(Thou shalt not steal)
Ewa (Anna Polony) was formerly headmistress at a girl's school. Ania believes that Ewa is her mother and Maijka (Maja Barelkowska) an older sister. Three generations of lies and scandal blur the true relationships between these women.

Decalogue 8
55 mins
(Thou shalt not bear false witness)
Zofia (Maria Koscialkowska) is a professor of ethics whose happiness is belied by her strange habit of placing flowers each day in an empty room of her apartment. Elzbieta (Teresa Marczewska), a young woman from America, applies for Zofia's class. The meeting brings back a bitter night from Zofia's past.

Decalogue 9
58 mins
(Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife)
Roman (Piotr Machalica) learns that he is incurably impotent. His wife Hanka (Ewa Blaszczyk) is understanding and reassures him that her love for him will not be dissipated. Roman's discovery and misunderstanding of a brief affair Hanka has, leads to a tragic conclusion.

Decalogue 10
57 mins
(Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods)
Artur (Zbigniew Zamachowski), a Polish pop star, and his older brother Jerzy (Jerzy Stuhr) discover their late father's apartment filled with metal chests and security devices to guard his stamp collection. When they decide against selling it, they find themselves wheeling and dealing to enlarge it.