The Decalogue

Twenty years ago, the wonderful director Krzysztof Kieślowski died. His most famous work is the Blue, White, Red trilogy made in France. Those are great films, but his best work is the 10-part Decalogue, made for Polish television in the 1980s. Shot in a single apartment complex in Warsaw with each film inspired by one of the Ten Commandments, Kieślowski provided a brilliant look at late-communist Poland and the everyday lives of its residents, with crises ranging from whether to have an abortion to peeping toms to fathers who believe they have mastered frozen ponds but have not. Piotr Florczyk has an excellent essay on the series, using it as his launching point for visiting the apartment complex where it was filmed and musing on what has changed in Poland and what has not.

If you haven’t seen Decalogue, do so.