Decalogue

Decalgoue is a Polish TV series that allows for deep reflection and analysis after each episode. In the first episode, a father puts all of his belief and knowledge into a computer system. His young son wishes to play on the frozen pond and the father performs a calculation to see if the ice will be able to hold his son's weight. After doing the calculation he comes to the conclusion that the ice will in fact be able to withstand the weight. Unfortunately and to his son's detriment, the ice does give out and the boy falls through and drowns. The father can't understand where he went wrong because the calculation was accurate. However, his problem is just that. He is only concerned with the numbers he plugged in and why it failed to prove true. Even before his son asked him what it meant to die. The father responded emotionless and bluntly that it was when your heart stopped beating and life left your body. The father lived in the prfoane and very rarely lets any elements of the sacred intervene. He goes to the church after his son's death and throws the table with candles over. The audience sees the wax run down the Virgin Mary's cheeks but the father pays little attention to this. The goal of the film is to instigate madrash. Midrash allows for us to reflect on the film and make it personal to our own lives. Yes God knows who will die and when but it does not mean he doesn't weep along side of us when such hardships occurs. Film doesn't just tell you the moral of the story directly and spell it all out for you. It is a medium of art that is suppose to ignite passion and reflection and cause you to apply it to your own life. Religion can mean very little to you when you don't try to integrate it in your own life.

The second episode we watched followed the commandment of "Thou Shall not Kill". In this episode a young man kills a taxi driver and then is killed by the state as a punishment. This allows for deeper reflection on this commandment. We are told not to kill or murder people but end up killing or murdering people as a punishment. Wars and death penalties are excellent examples of this. How do you justify either? Thousands of Americans were killed during 911 yet thousands of civilians have died amidst the war that resulted from the terrorist attack. It is a law that citizens are not allowed to kill people but if they do, they receive the death penalty. Midrash occurs as Kieslowski keeps these films very basic and without too much dialogue, scenery, and characters to let the audience think for themselves. This last film did just that for me. I don't really know if our country follows its own rules or if it has to be like this to set the precedent. Though the films seemed a little a harder to follow and not as exciting at some points, I see the rational behind such doing.