Originally intended for Polish television, Krzysztof Kieślowski’s (Three Colors trilogy) legendary Dekalog consists of ten one-hour films inspired by the Ten Commandments. Each film explores one or several moral or ethical issues faced by characters living in a stark apartment block in modern Poland. The series, Kieślowski’s most acclaimed work, won numerous international awards, though it was not widely released outside Europe until the late 1990s. The rerelease, championed by Janus Films, will feature the entire series looking better than it has since its initial release.
DEKALOG: ONE (56 minutes)
Krzysztof, a semantics professor and computer hobbyist, is raising his young son, Paweł, to look to science for answers, while Irena, Paweł’s aunt, lives a life rooted in faith. Over the course of one day, both adults are forced to question their belief systems.
DEKALOG: TWO (59 minutes)
Dorota is in love with two men: her gravely ill husband, Andrzej, and a fellow musician who is the father of her unborn child. Andrzej’s doctor, himself no stranger to loss, is Dorota’s downstairs neighbor; she implores him to swear to a prognosis for her husband, and in doing so puts a very serious decision into his hands.