Dekalog 3 + 4
Krzysztof Kieślowski: Dekalog 3 + 4
Third and fourth parts of Kieslowski’s monumental TV seriesDekalog, about the Ten Commandments. In the third episode, Ewa tries to get her former lover to stay with her on Christmas Eve. In the fourth episode, a woman finds a revealing letter from her deceased mother.
In all episodes of theDekalog series, the characters become entangled by chance in circumstances that hold them hostage. Their lives are pale – the ten episodes are set amongst the grey concrete of a typical Polish suburb – and so is their future: higher powers seem to hold them in their grasp; any sense of ethics is present only in the background.
Kieslowski screened the series in its entirety at the Venice film festival (1989). An incredible achievement, especially during the turbulent times following the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Communist leaders were being forced to allow free elections.
Programme
Dekalog 3
It’s Christmas Eve and Ewa tries to spend the hours until morning with her former lover Janusz, a family man, by convincing him that her husband is missing. What follows is a night full of recklessness and lies. The former lovers wrestle with the choices they made when their affair was discovered three years ago, and submit their current lives to a through re-examination.
Dekalog 4
A father and daughter, Michał and Anka, have a unique, intimate bond, which student Anka comes to question more and more. When she finds an unopened letter from her deceased mother, this seems to explain her attraction to Michał, who may not be her father after all.
Special screenings
Details
Director
Krzysztof Kieślowski
Production year
1988
Length
111 min.
Country
PL
Language
Polish
Subtitles
English
Part of
De films van Kieślowski
Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski broke through internationally with his ten-part series Dekalog, which examined the meaning of the Ten Commandments for modern humans.
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