The Decalogue [TV Series] (1988)

An ambitious, tour-de-force epic originally made for Polish television, Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Decalogue (1988) explores nothing less than the Ten Commandments. Written by agnostic Kieslowski and Christian Krzysztof Piesiewicz, each of the ten short films examines a commandment (without specifying which one) in terms of the moral quandaries faced by ordinary people in their daily lives. Setting all the stories in the same bleak Warsaw housing project, Kieslowski and Piesiewicz emphasize the universal yet mundane nature of the different conundrums, in an everyday world replete with coincidences, tragedies, and cosmic jokes. Although each film could stand alone, as in Kieslowski's subsequent Three Colors trilogy, they occasionally intersect in subtle ways that enhance the complex cohesion of the whole, along with the unifying use of washed-out colors and close-ups. Parts Five and Six were expanded and released theatrically as A Short Film About Killing (1987) and A Short Film About Love (1988); Part Nine features a predecessor to the Polish singer in Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique (1991). Considered Kieslowski's masterpiece by many critics, The Decalogue finally received its U.S. video release in 2000 after a decade of occasional screenings at film festivals and film societies. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide