Dekalog: The Ten Commandments

Synopsis

From the director of the Three Colours trilogy, Dekalog is a series of ten hour-long films, loosely based on the Ten Commandments. Set around the same Warsaw apartment block, the films focus on the complexities of human relationships. The themes are the universal ones of love, marriage, infidelity, parenthood, guilt, faith and compassion. The result is a unique and life-enhancing look at the various moral dilemmas faced by ordinary people in their daily lives.

Stanley Kubrick praised Kieslowski and his co-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz for their "very rare ability to dramatise their ideas rather than just talking about them… They do this with such dazzling skill, you never see the ideas coming and don't realise until much later how profoundly they have reached your heart."

Dekalog V and Dekalog VI were later reworked and expanded as A Short Film about Killing and A Short Film about Love.

Film Listing

- Dekalog I: Am The Lord Thy God. Thou Shalt Have No Other God But Me (1988, 53 mins)
- Dekalog II: Thou Shalt Not Take The Name Of The Lord Thy God In Vain (1988, 57 mins)
- Dekalog III: Honour The Sabbath Day (1988, 56 mins)
- Dekalog IV: Honour Thy Father And Thy Mother (1988, 55 mins)
- Dekalog V: Thou Shalt Not Kill (1988, 57 mins)
- Dekalog VI: Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery (1988, 58 mins)
- Dekalog VII: Thou Shalt Not Steal (1988, 55 mins)
- Dekalog VIII: Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbour (1988, 55 mins)
- Dekalog IX: Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbour’s Wife (1988, 58 mins)
- Dekalog X: Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbour’s Goods (1988, 57 mins)