Decalogue III

Christmas night. Janusz, a taxi driver, comes home from mass to his family. His former lover Ewa appears at the door: her husband has disappeared and she needs help. He lies to his wife and gets in the car. They spend the night going through hospitals, drunk tanks and empty streets. Krzysztof Kieslowski directed, writing with Krzysztof Piesiewicz. It is the third part of the Decalogue, matched to the commandment about keeping the holy day. The tension is not the search but whether the search is real. Ewa's intention shifts as the night goes on, and what emerges by morning is nothing but loneliness. The image of the Warsaw winter is at its coldest in this part: dark blocks, empty roads, scattered light. Like all of the Decalogue it was made for television and runs fifty-five minutes. Kieslowski's method is unchanged: the moral question is never asked aloud, only its consequence is shown. Who it is for: viewers who like Kieslowski and short narratives built on a moral dilemma. Who it is not for: anyone watching this part alone; it is stronger inside the whole.