Dekalog : an apartment complex that seems and feels omnipresent. For 10 episodes, Dekalog is the world and the world is Dekalog. Moral and ethical dilemmas are meticulously explored through characters living in this place, with craftsmanship that is second to none. Dekalog is a downright intimidating piece of filmmaking, a towering milestone of European Cinema, and Krzysztof Kieślowski’s magnum opus. Zbigniew Preisner's score had me thinking about twenty adjectives to describe its beauty. It adds exponentially to Dekalog's atmosphere, helping the episodes mentally wound us even more. Dekalog is unbelievable. The sheer scale of this massive undertaking is mind-blowing in itself. The fact that the execution is as amazing as it could be just seals the deal.

Below are some thoughts on each individual episode :

Episode I
"I am the Lord thy God; thou shalt have no other gods before Me."
An indescribable sense of mystery pervades this episode, its source being the computer which is the center of Krzysztof's home. The computer is an omnipotent entity for him. Science is what he believes in and it is what his son, Pawel, leans towards during what is a formative period of his young life. Is the computer a false idol? Can you entrust your life in the hands of numbers and calculations? Unforseen circumstances are often times a bitter part of our lives, and Krzysztof learns it in the worst possible way. Religion is not going to save you from these circumstances but you might find solace in it if there's nothing and no one else to turn to. You look for salvation even if you don't truly believe in religion. But it's too late for Krzysztof. The holy water has frozen.

Episode II
''Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.''
Dorota is at a crossroads. Burdened with overwhelming guilt, at the end, she has to take a life-altering decision. But is the decision in her hands? Did she genuinely not want to hurt her husband, or did she simply want to be relieved from her guilty conscience? Did she see her Doctor as a Godlike figure in her own mind, thinking his word to be the absolute truth? Did the Doctor genuinely think he predicted the right thing, or did he deliberately lie to save a life? He took an oath in vain but he ended up making two people happy. Perhaps, this happiness built on a devastating lie will rear its ugly head in the future, but as of now, Dorota has to live with the bittersweet feeling of finally having what she had always wanted but not in the way she would have ideally wanted to have it. Her child will be her undying source of love and guilt.

Episode III
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."
One of the most unique nocturnal odysseys I've had the pleasure of witnessing. Janusz, a married man, and Ewa, his former lover, spend the night of Christmas Eve searching for the latter's husband while simultaneously opening up wounds from the past as cold as the blanket of snow which covers their city. Janusz is happily married while Ewa has not a soul to confide in. He is put in a dangerous position to ruin his own life by reigniting his affair with Ewa, whom he resists to the best of his capabilities. At the same time, he helps Ewa go through what she feels to be the loneliest night of her year. High-speed car rides, phone calls preventing the first step of adultery and two people who could not be in any more different places in life. But there's hope. He may not see her again, but she promised herself that things would get better if she keeps him till dawn. And she did.

Episode IV
"Honor thy father and thy mother."
Challenging a taboo head-on. A weird yet strangely satisfying tale of a daughter and her father. The daughter, Anka, finds herself in the most peculiar of positions. Is it acceptable to try and renegotiate a relationship just because biological connection is not a factor? More importantly, is not being biologically related all it takes to accept the sexual attraction towards another person, especially when the relationship is that of a daughter and a father? What about the emotional relation that has lasted for 20 years in their lives? To be or not to be biologically related does not negate the fact that Anka has been raised by Michal, and because of it, they cannot act on the attraction even if they're tempted to do so. Unless society takes a twisted moral turn for the worse in our future, this episode will remain provocative and controversial for a long time.

Episode V
"Thou shalt not kill."
Uncomfortably and unforgivingly bleak. An episode shrouded in darkness and deaths. Jacek, a drifter with a seemingly pointless affinity for anger and violence, commits a brutal and unnecessary crime. The sheer pointlessness of his actions makes us wish for an equally horrible death for him. I was horrified at what he did. I wanted him dead. Blind rage on my part, maybe, just like Jacek? When he does get his comeuppance, I could not help but feel sorry for him, even if just a little bit. A brutal murderer was, to a degree, humanized before my very eyes as he conversed with his lawyer. His deed was irredeemable. Yet the State sanctioned death penalty came across as almost as cold-blooded, albeit not being pointless. It left me in a state of confusion, pondering over Jacek's fate and whether he deserved it. Maybe he did. Maybe he could have been helped long before he stepped foot into the city and committed the horrible crime. One murder being illegal and the other being legal cannot change the fact that, at the end of the day, it is murder.

Episode VI
"Thou shalt not commit adultery."
Voyeurism leading to love leading to voyeurism. What starts out as a creepy tale turns into a humiliating and heartbreaking warning against the pitfalls that love can take an innocent person to. Tomek is a lonely boy. He would not have ever imagined that peeking into Magda's house would gradually make him fall in love with her. Worse yet, he would not have ever thought that she would be the cause of a humiliating episode in his young life. Magda is just as lonely - perhaps even lonelier - than Tomek. Realizing that a person, regardless of his age, seemingly genuinely cares for her snaps her out of her own views on how and what love is. But, as always, it's too late. Men and women justify some rather crazy things as acts of love. The "perfect" love that exists through love-gazing can only last for so long before reality comes in like a wrecking ball.

Episode VII
"Thou shalt not steal."
Exporing what can be considered as larceny. Not stealing money or material possession, but another human being. The story centers around three people : Ania, her mother Majka, and her mother Ewa. Bearing a child in high school and having that child be legally belong to someone else, even if that "someone" is your mother, is a horrible feeling. As Majka reaches maturity, she finds herself being deprived of her motherhood by her own mother. Ewa, in her quest to experience motherhood again, raises her grandchild as her biological child. Majka attempts to take her own child with her, which would unfortunately be illegal in a world of documents and stamps. Fighting a losing battle, one can only hope that the running train was the beginning of a new start for Majka. In the end, whose act should be considered "stealing" is crystal clear.

Episode VIII
"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."
Telling the truth at all times, regardless of what negative impact it can have on someone else's life, is significantly worse than lying. Adhering to your religious views to abandon a child during World War II, no less, is irredeemable. The direct references to previous and upcoming episodes makes this a more involved experience, incorporating the community aspect of an apartment complex in a sizeable city to drive home the fact that while these people may know about each other's existence and a few important things here and there, they have no idea what is going on in their lives. For Elzbieta, the girl who was abandoned, it's about finding the actual reason of her abandonment. For Zofia, the woman who had to abandon her, it's about repenting and asking for forgiveness. A simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming tale of a lifelong connection between two people who would've wanted to be acquainted under better circumstances.

Episode IX
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife."
Uncompromisingly devastating. Rarely can one find a more honest portrayal of the pitfalls of married life than what we see in this episode. Roman is perhaps the most sympathetic character in the whole show. Feeling worthless after being impotent, half-heartedly telling his wife, Hanna, to find another lover, and not being able to bear the consequences. The mental effects of sexual dysfunction is rarely explored in films because it is scary. People don't want to think about that possibility. For many people, emotional love and physical love cannot be reserved for two separate lovers. Watching this episode was soul crushing, but at least there's some hope of a better life by the time it ends.

Episode X
"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods."
This was a much needed change of pace. After more or less getting my soul crushed on for nine episodes, it's only fitting that Dekalog closes out with its most light-hearted and least emotionally taxing episode. Jerzy and Artur set out to sell their deceased father's multi-million dollar stamp collection and end up losing a kidney and almost each other's trust. Material craving can make people do absurd things (like, yes, giving up a kidney). When you have something good, you'll always want more of it. If you act on those wants and forget that what you have is more than enough to fulfill your needs, you will positively end up losing what you have in the first place. On the positive side, maybe the obsession with the stamp collection has turned them into budding collectors too?

Comparing working for television with cinema, Kieślowski said, "The only difference is that TV pays you less and you have to work faster. I treat both forms in the same way -- and perhaps TV even more seriously: If you come into someone's home, you have to behave." And behave he did. In creating Dekalog, he created one of the greatest drama shows for television and one of the greatest pieces of cinema.