Decalogue

Decalogue is completely immersed with Midrash. This can be seen through the film’s use of characters and natural daily life settings. In the first episode the Biblical commandment was “I am the Lord God, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Even though in the film was not overt in describing this commandment visually the storyline was compelling in the way it portrayed this commandment. In the first episode Pavel who was one of the main characters grapples with the idea of death and where God is in the midst of it. His father who had grown up Catholic had now completely rejected the religion and believes that everything must be measured in order to be true. In the episode the father’s son Pavel dies because of a break in the ice when he went ice skating on the river. He finds that to be impossible to explain because he had made sure to measure every single part of the ice in order to make sure it was safe for Pavel to skate on the ice. But against all odds the ice broke which also symbolically broke the father’s worship of factual measurements to be absolute truth. After he learns about Pavel’s death he runs to the altar of Mary and baby Jesus and angrily throws away the candles before the altars but in doing so the wax drips onto Mary’s face making it look like she was crying. This symbolically represented how God was with the father in the loss of his son because He knows what it was like to lose a son. The father worshipped measurements like a god which later failed him showing that God was declaring that He is Lord of all and that there is no other god that can replace Him.

In the second episode the commandment depicted was “thou shalt not kill.” This was clearly depicted in the killings but there was a deeper meaning that was not as literal. The recompense for injustice done for killing also resulted in killing. Even when done in justice there was still the taking of another human’s life that was being enacted. For example in the film Jacek Lazar was the teenage killer of the taxi driver who ended up being executed at the end because he was found guilty. But the way he was killed didn’t feel anymore different than how he killed the taxi driver. Both died by choking to death and both were morbid in the way it was depicted.

Even though the Decalogue films were in a different language the feeling of pain of losing a loved one or the killing of other people was a universal feeling depicted that many people could relate to regardless of language or culture. I think what made it even more powerful was how the film depicted very mundane scenes of regular people living their daily life which made it feel more relatable and close to whoever the viewer may be.