252 - Dekalog: Eight, 1990, Poland. Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski.

Saturday, September 9, 2017

252 - Dekalog: Eight, 1990, Poland.  Dir. Krzysztof Kieslowski.

Exodus 20:16 - Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Deuteronomy 5:20 - Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Matthew 19:18 - . . . Thou shalt not bear false witness.

A little girl walks hand-in-hand with an adult through a dark alley.

An elderly woman exercises in the park.

She carries flowers home.  She runs into her friend.  He collects stamps.  He has recently received a commemorative series featuring the 1931 German flight over the North Pole.  He calls it Polarfahrt. He recounts that the flight was made by three zeppelins.  She encourages him.  She invites him to bring them by and show her.

They live in the same apartment as do all of our protagonists from these films.

We will come to realize that her neighbor deals with the recent past--the War, Fascism, Communism--by living in the distant past.  A more peaceful time.

She gets her mail.  She straightens a painting in her apartment--twice.  She walks past shelves of books.  She places the flowers in a vase.  She retrieves food from the refrigerator.  Kieslowski takes the time to develop the details of people's daily habits in each of these films.  For various apparent reasons.  It is character development.  It can be symbolism.  It might be instrumental to the story.  A key set of objects here will be mismatched cups.

The off-kilter painting will recur throughout the episode.  Life falls askew.  Our efforts to straighten it provide mere temporary relief.

The woman nurtures life with the flowers (although technically she killed them in cutting them to bring them to her home)--as do several key characters in these films.  They breed life to counter urban drab.

She drives to work.  The University.  The Dean calls her in.  Mrs. Elzbieta Lorenz has come to see her.  Research exchange.  She has translated nearly all the professor's works.  They met once in the States.  She would like to sit in on some lectures.  Our lady would be delighted.

Our lady is named Zofia.

Zofia introduces Mrs. Lorenz to the class.  Mrs. Lorenz works for an American institute that researches the fate of Jewish children saved during the War.

The class is an Ethics class.  They are in the midst of discussions.  People are sitting in the aisles.  It must be popular.  Zofia opens the class for discussion.  They have been talking about "ethical hell."

A woman raises her hand.

Elzbieta listens, fingering her necklace.  On her necklace hangs a cross.

The student poses a scenario.  She tells the story of Dekalog: Two.  A woman is pregnant with another man's baby.  Her husband is dying.  She demands that the doctor tell her whether or not her husband will live.  If he lives, she will abort the baby.  If he dies, she will keep the baby.  The doctor knows abortion is wrong, and he is put in a position where the life of the baby is in his hands.

Zofia says she knows the story.  Warsaw is a small town.  She asks the students to write about the scenario.  She adds that the child is still alive today.

She states that the life of the child matters most.

Elzbieta raises her hand.  She tells her own story.  In February, 1943, a six-year-old Jewish girl is taken to a home for hiding.  She is required to have a certificate of baptism in order to protect her identity.  She is taken to the home of a Catholic couple, who are asked to act as the girl's godparents for the baptism.  It is just before curfew.  There is little time.  The couple state that they cannot act as godparents for the baptism, because they cannot violate their conscience and bear false witness.

Zofia asks Elzbieta for details.

Elzbieta provides them.  In front of the class.  The mismatched cups.  The green oil lamp.

Zofia grows tense with recognition.  Elzbieta finges her necklace.

We know that Zofia was the woman.  And that Elzbieta was the girl.

A girl raises her hand and conjectures.  It would not be bearing false witness against a neighbor, because it would not be against the neighbor.  She implies it would be for the neighbor, in this case for the life of the neighbor.

A young man raises his hand.  Perhaps fear was the motive.

Zofia finishes the class and the class adjourns.

The two women will go on a journey together of exploration and understanding.

Forty years ago Elzbieta was the six-year-old Jewish girl seeking asylum.  Elzbieta was the woman seemingly denying it.  Now she is an Ethics professor.  Elzbieta has spent her career translating Zofia's works.  They have met only once before in professional passing.  Zofia has never known Elzbieta was the girl.  She has spent her life wondering what happened to her.  Worried about her.

Zofia explains her motives to Elzbieta, and they make sense.

It turns out a falsehood was born against another neighbor, one that nearly got him executed, and one that could have gotten Elzbieta killed as well.

They go on the journey together.  Through the city and through the past.

And come to terms.