Decalogue I & V

Corinne Whalen
2/2/19

In our description for the assignment, midrash is described as, “minimizing the literal meaning of the text and force the reader to struggle with the meaning, to make the meaning personal.” As well as this, the description mentions that midrash is meant to focus on Biblical texts. Decalogue portrays this very well because the whole series is based on the ten commandments. The first episode that we watched was about the first commandment which basically means that there are people that believe in other gods or ideals, but that there should only be belief in the one – monotheism. With this being said, in the film, the “god” that was being focused on was technology. We even saw that in the film, Pavel and his father would notice that the computer would have a mind of its own. I believe that with this, it showed how technology has taken over a big piece of our lives, and is swaying us away from what we’ve believed before.

The second episode that we watched was about the fifth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.” This basically means that if you kill just to kill, it is considered murder, but if you kill someone who is a danger to society, it is not considered murder. This is portrayed in this episode because the main character murders the taxi driver with no reason other than to kill him. We see that once he gets caught, he is taken to trial, and they say he is guilty of murder. It’s an interesting parallel, because although he is being put on trial for murdered and eventually given the death penalty, the ones who hang him, are really no different than him. They treat him like he’s nothing and they have no problem with killing him. Looking at the commandment, they would be considered doing nothing wrong as it would not be murder because they are getting rid of something that could be causing harm to society, but technically it is still murder.

Relating this to Kieslowski’s quote about relating feeling to meaning, I find it interesting how the meaning of each film was presented. Tying in the ideas of God, and the emotions associated with the events occurring in the films, really brought out the deeper meaning. For example, having Pavel die at the end, was a deeper meaning of how calculations can’t solve everything in life and that the true being to be focused on is God. We see that Pavel’s dad follows technology more than God, and when it ends badly, he realizes this but it is too late. For the other film, like I said before, it is interesting to see the parallel between the two killings and how different they are perceived. I think clinging to the fears and emotions of the people viewing the films, helps to portray the ideas and beliefs of the film even more.


One question that I do have about these films is that was the guy who overlooked the lake, and the one who popped up in the other episode carrying the ladder and standing at the stop sign, is he a form of God? Do you think that he was the ultimate God watching everything unfold throughout the episodes?

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