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Dekalog 2: 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain' (1988)

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From Time Out Film Guide

Bardini plays a consultant at the local hospital, a lonely, diffident man in his sixties, who has just begun to relate, in weekly instalments, the sad story of his life (his wife and children were killed during the war). A neighbour (Janda), a chain-smoker, knocks insistently on his door, much to his annoyance, demanding news of her husband, a patient of his who may be dying of cancer. Her problem, it transpires, is that she is pregnant (by another), and the decision whether she has an abortion or not is dependent on the survival or otherwise of her husband. The consultant refuses to play God by saying whether the husband will live or die. As he says, 'I have a God, but it's only enough for me'. As in Dekalog 1, the film's power comes from the precise, economic delineation of character and circumstance.

Author: WH

Time Out Film Guide

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Ricky said...

Posted on Mar 21 2012 08:20 A wonderful movie centering on the moral dilemma about an abortion for both Dorota and the doctor.
What is beautiful is that the movie's ambiguities make space for each viewer to judge the morality involved according to their own value-priorites -- whether based on religion or not.
The doctor's priority appears to be saving life and perhaps that is why he lies to Dorota (if he is lieing) that Andjrez will die in order to save the life of the potential baby.
What is left unresolved is whether Andrjrez knows that Dorota's preganancy is not by him and will she tell him?
If she does not - and one takes it from the last scene that he thinks the child is his - then Dorota will be carriying the burden of that deceit.
To me that deceit is more damaging to their love and life together than the unnecesary religion-inspired guilt about having an abortion.

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