248 - Dekalog: Four, 1989, Poland. Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

248 - Dekalog: Four, 1989, Poland.  Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski.

Exodus 20:12 - Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Deuteronomy 5:16 - Honor thy father and mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Ephesians 6:1-3 - Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.  2) Honor thy father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise)  3) That it may be well with you, and you may live long in the earth.

Anka and her father like to play pranks on one another.  Anka loves her father.  Her mother has been dead for several years.

It is Easter Morning, and she fills the coffee pot with water.  She goes into his bedroom and pours the cold water on her father.  He jumps awake.

He gets her back.  He chases her into the bathroom and douses her.

Just before she got him, she glanced through a stack of papers and bills on the table.  His passport. His plane ticket.  He is leaving today for another work trip.  She seems apprehensive about it.

She sees an envelope in the stack: "To Be Opened After My Death."  The viewer might write it off. "Oh, that could be his will.  Maybe a loving letter."  But it has an ominous effect on her.

Anka has known about the letter since she was 16.  Or 15.  But her father has always kept it from her. Now it appears that he has left it out for her to find it while he is gone.

Anka mopes while her father is gone.  Her boyfriend comes over and sees that she is distracted.  He tries to comfort her.  She goes to her acting class, but she struggles to concentrate.

In three days she decides to open it.  She goes to the river.  A man carries a rowboat over his head. We anticipate that we will see him again in another episode.

She opens the letter.

Inside is another envelope.  In her mother's handwriting.  The actual letter is from her mother.

Her father comes home.

Anka confronts him.  She tells him what her mother told her.

You are not my father.

This discovery has consequences.  For both of them.  He broods.  He breaks an interior window.

They work through it.

They work through it together.

And things unfold that test their relationship.

They will discover something new.  And they will discover something once again.

Anka loves her father.