Kieślowski’s Dekalog
Sin and virtue—two beasts of burden carrying the weight of human civilization since time immemorial. From the dawn of history they have stood at the opposite poles of human thought. They are the first primers of social life, the primal grammar of morality. The Ten Commandments of the Bible—ten punishments for ten sins—encapsulated this ancient struggle. And from the earliest days of human history, the contest between sin and virtue has never ceased to agitate the human intellect. Even after the myths of the Church crumbled, the debates did not end. Krzysztof Kie ś lowski’s Dekalog is a revaluation of that very tension. A renewal in modern form. The Ten Commandments of the Bible may indeed form its thematic ground, but not in the Biblical sense, nor by direct narrative retelling. Instead, when the triumph of urban civilization and the arrogance of modernity rendered human beings increasingly lonely, Kie ś lowski’s Dekalog assumed the guise of myth, embodying those ancient archet...