A review of The Decalogue

Laura Daniels’ Blog #3 - Intergenerational

This is a review of The Decalogue by Krzysztof Kieslowski. The Decalogue
is a DVD collection that depicts the Ten Commandments via (10) one-hour
stories. The DVD’s are a resource that can be used with a variety of age
groups and across various cultures as a way to live the Ten
Commandments in modern-day life. Each story is layered with multiple
messages and dilemmas, just as real life is. Sometimes the message and
the “sin” are easy to see and sometimes they are hidden under layers of
discreetness.


The Ten Commandments have been around for thousands of years as a
guide for living. Each and everyday we break various commandments and
don’t even realize it. The DVD’s are worth a view from every minister and
religion teacher - although I would caution you to use with older teens, like
juniors and seniors, all the way through adulthood.


Decalogue 1: “I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt have no other gods before
me.” This is a story of a son and father and the mysteries of the computer.
There’s an aunt who’s religious, verses the father who’s very practical. Who
do we trust in our lives? God? or other things in life, like the computer?
Who do we turn to when things don’t work out as we’ve computed?


Decalogue 2: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
A wife, a husband, a doctor, a lover, and an unborn baby. Will the wife, who
had an affair with a work colleague, keep her baby or have an abortion?
Well, it all depends if her husband, who is very ill, will live or die. Will, or
can, or should the doctor tell her what she needs to know?


Decalogue 3: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Does that only
mean that you must attend Sunday service? Or does this commandment
apply to other things? This is the story of a husband and wife at Christmas
time, and the husband’s past lover. The lover interrupts her ex’s Christmas.


Decalogue 4: “Honor thy father and thy mother.” What makes a parent a
parent? A 20-year old girl and her father tread down some unchartered
waters in their relationship. Are they related? All is to be revealed in a letter
that was left behind by the girl’s deceased mother.



Decalogue 5: “Thou shalt not kill.” A disturbed young man murders a cabdriver
in a random act of violence. We are introduced to the young
murderer and a lawyer who was just admitted to the bar. We see their
struggles in dealing with the trial and the death-sentence that’s handed
down. Is is right to kill a killer?

Decalogue 6: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” We meet a peeping tom
and a promiscuous lady. He is obsessed with her and she doesn’t know
how to love. They have a discussion that leads to an act of desperation.
What about obsession?

Decalogue 7: “Thou shalt not steal.” Our characters include a controlling,
loveless mother, a controlled father, a confused daughter, and a little girl
that is the focus of both women. Is it stealing if you take something back that was once yours?

Decalogue 8: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” In
this small world, a woman comes face-to-face with the Jewish woman, who she turned away as a child, during the Nazis occupation. The woman
explains her cowardice.

Decalogue 9: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house.” A husband and
wife want children, but the husband is impotent. He convinces his wife to
take a lover and she does. This causes much grief in the marriage and
desperation arises.

Decalogue 10: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maid, nor his goods, nor anything that is yourneighbor’s.” Two brothers are left a valuable collection, but one piece is missing. They locate the piece which makes the collection complete, but it
will cost one of the brothers his kidney. After the surgery, the collection is
stolen. The brothers suspect one another.

These DVDs are an awesome way to start a conversation about the commandments and break-open what each means. They can be used as are source with older teens; to complement a lesson plan on the commandments. They can be used with young adults in a Theology on Tap
set-up or with any adult group as part of an adult formation series.
Teachers and ministers will want to review them to help their audiences
better understand the commandments in today’s world.

Besides using the DVDs across generational lines, they are a good resource across cultural lines. The Ten Commandments are understood
world wide and throughout various religious groups. The stories are done in Polish with subtitles, but the themes and messages are universal.

In reviewing the following text, Stages of Faith, the Psychology of Human
Development and the Quest for Meaning, by James W. Fowler, Harper:San Francisco, 1981, (Part IV, Stages of Faith), we are introduced to a human
development model that is crossed with a faith development model. As
psychology has given us developmental models from Piaget, Erikson, and others, Fowler, uses the human development model to show the reader
how faith develops, grows and changes throughout one’s life.

He begins with the Undifferentiated Faith Stage in infants and moves us
towards the final stage, Stage 6, Universalizing Faith. As people develop physically, mentally, psychologically, intellectually, and so on, they also
develop some form of faith. Individuals travel through Erikson’s and other’s
life stages along, or simultaneous to Fowler’s Faith Stages.

The stages (Intuitive-Projective Faith, Mythic-Literal Faith, Synthetic-
Conventional Faith, Individuative-Reflective Faith, Conjunctive Faith, and Universalizing Faith) are symbiotic to the various age-related stages of growth and development. Just as individuals reach the various age-related stages at certain times in theirs lives, people reach Fowler’s stages in thesame way. Each stage is marked by certain achievements and awareness
that the individual has achieved. Each stage builds on the last stage.

As such, the DVD resource is best understood by older teens and up. This
is simply because some of the material is for more mature audiences and for individuals that can think abstractly, because some of the material is
nuanced with themes that require more intelligent processing. The junior or senior in high school would be developmentally better equipped to draw conclusions and tie the DVDs into faith-related issues. Additionally, the
adult, at his/her various developmental and faith-related phase, would be


able to draw their own parallels to their own life experiences. It would
actually be a great learning environment to have the various generations inthe same group reviewing the DVDs from their life experiences and their faith experiences.