It was at the end of the 1980s that Krzysztof Kieslowski, together with Krzysztof Piesiewicz, created Transcendence of Film and Television. Their Dekalog was divided into one-hour television episodes each, and yet it is in the language of cinema. It is difficult to put Dekalog into words. The work is based on the ten commandments, but does not work through one commandment after the next. Dekalog never reveals which one it is explicitly about. And really only one? The characters in Dekalog are deeply flawed (but not to be misinterpreted, by any stretch of the imagination, as something like the sinners in the modern world!) The characters are flawed, in that they refuse to believe in anything greater than themselves. The point, however, is not to denigrate the godless, but rather to examine human experience. All the episodes take place in the same apartment complex, which means you can meet characters from the second episode again in the fourth. This creates thematic lines, such as the vulnerability of children, and this cumulative one is reinforced by subtle references. Decalogue conveys kindness and compassion above all. This is not a film that dislikes its own characters! Kieslowski, on the other hand, really gets involved with the people in his film. Although we have nothing to do with certain situations like incest, we discover something of ourselves in each of his characters. And what we see changes! Try it and look at individual films with some distance. After a few years. You will see that they change just as your own life, your perspective changes. Dekalog changes with us as we grow older. It was indispensable for me then and it is now! A Short film About Love works like a spin-off to the series. It centres on a 19-year-old postal worker who desires the slightly older woman across the street beyond measure. It must be torture! He buys a pair of binoculars and thus spends every spare minute with her. Without exploring the depths of his passion, the woman notices this observation and reacts... A film about love in the 20th century. Presumably it makes sense to watch The Decalogue first (the sixth episode about inbreeding) and then watch this counterpart. However, A Short Film About Love not only works in correspondence to Dekalog, but also to A Short Film About Killing, which was also borrowed from the series.
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