With "The Decalogue" former documentary filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski and writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz tried their hands on an innovative TV concept for Polish television with the main focus on addressing moral issues the individual is facing. The result is a seminal series of ten small films where the protagonists are confronted with various dilemmas, forced to make decisions with ramifications on their own lives and the lives of others. Each of these films is a little gem in itself, and the entire lot put together provides even more weight. The episodes don't necessarily represent each of the ten Christian commandments as the title of the series might suggest, but rather it's a healthy mixture of them all, of universal value and accessible to everyone. Made in Poland in the eighties, before the time Kieslowski became known to a broader audience, the films' strong point is to show the lives of ordinary people living in the same block of buildings, doing their everyday business. Add in a dramatic ingredient dished out by fate or caused by human nature - death, illness, tragedy, hope, love to name examples - and a person's life takes another turn, gets unhinged or shifts focus. Paths formerly unexplored need to be considered and taken, often by the individual alone.
One of the great things about these small films is that "The Decalogue" uses actors you'll probably never see anywhere else again (unless you explore Kieslowski's other works), a fact that makes all these stories look as if they are taken straight out of life, portrayed by and meant for actual living people. Also due to the more bleak East bloc environment where existence is at the forefront of people's concerns, the tales can actually focus on the people involved and their issues, they are down-to-earth, raw, gritty, sometimes quite simple, yet often deep and indefinitely thought-provoking. Thus "The Decalogue" contains everything that matters when it comes to moral decisions which Hollywood blockbusters with similar themes sorely lack.
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