Dekalog: Episodes 5-7

Director: Krzysztof Kieślowski

1990 / 176min / DCP

The fifth and sixth episodes of Kieślowski and co-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz’s serialized epic—titled, respectively, Thou Shall Not Kill, later expanded on in Kieślowski’s A Short Film About Killing, and Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery, expanded as A Short Film About Love—are perhaps the most celebrated entries in the Dekalog: the former concerns a young man guilty of the motiveless murder of a cab driver and the attorney assigned to mount his defense; the latter, a 19-year-old peeper whose obsession with a fellow resident in his housing complex inspires him to sabotage her relationship with her lover, and from there further psychological gamesmanship. No less compelling—and ethically knotty—however, is the seventh chapter, Thou Shalt Not Steal, in which the disputed “property” in question is a six-year-old girl caught in a tug-of-war custody battle between her grandmother and mother, which soon crosses over the line of legality.

Distributor: Janus Films

Part of Moral Mazes of Krzysztof Kieślowski