Eve Ingram- Decalogue

     Krzysztof Kieslowski's Decalogue is a film and a commentary on the Ten Commandment that walks the audience through each one with a different story and different dilemma. The first commandment, you shall have no other god before me, and the fifth commandment,  you shall not kill, are the ones that are focused on. Midrash, or discovering the literal meaning of biblical text is prominent in these two films by making the meaning of the text personal to everyone. The first film shows humanity's relationship with technology and how they might revere it like a god. Visually, it shows a man and son running to the computer every day, inputting equations, completing household activities, and basing life off of algorithms. The man trusts the computer so much that he even trusted an algorithm to determine how thick the was on a lake so his son could skate. The joy on their faces and the son's impressed emotions bring into perspective how much we depend on and are in awe of technology. When dependence and awe are two emotions to feel toward a god. The last few scenes can be up to the audience's interpretation and can take a while to understand. The father, in anger, goes to an altar and pushes the offering over, and then picks up ice that had frozen in the holy water. To me, this is suggesting that his faith had been "frozen over" in a way, which was then replaced with technology, but it eventually started to thaw when he placed it on his forehead. He realized that there is a power outside of technologies control, whether it is God or not. 

    The fifth short film shows the conundrum of the death penalty through the lens of the fifth commandment. I feel that this is a sensitive topic for most viewers, especially those from countries that have competing views on the death penalty like the United States. The subject matter helps relate feeling to meaning as we see a 20-year-old boy put to death using the same material that he murdered with. The irony causes the audience discomfort while simultaneously adding commentary on the fact that both biblical and political law seems to not extend to those in power. It would be normal for the audience to have conflicting emotions toward his character. In the span of a few minutes, we watched him commit a brutal murder and heard his tragic backstory. It leaves the audience to make the uncomfortable decision of if he deserved the death penalty. A decision that had to be made every day.