Dekalog: Two

Dekalog: Two
Directed by	Krzysztof Kieślowski
Produced by	Ryszard Chutkovski
Written by	Krzysztof Kieślowski Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Starring	Krystyna Janda Aleksander Bardini Olgierd Łukaszewicz
Music by	Zbigniew Preisner
Cinematography	Edward Klosinski
Edited by	Ewa Smal
Distributed by	Polish Television
Release date	1988 (1988)
Running time	57 minutes
Country	Poland
Language	Polish
Budget	$10,000

Dekalog: Two (Polish: Dekalog, dwa) is the second part of the television series Dekalog by Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski.^[1][2]

Dorota Geller, a married woman, faces a dilemma involving her sick husband's prognosis. Her husband's doctor, who believes in God, is made to swear by his prognosis, but gets it wrong.

Plot

The episode focuses on two people: an elderly hospital doctor (Aleksander Bardini), who lives by himself in the ubiquitous Dekalog apartment block; and Dorota Geller (Krystyna Janda), a woman in her 30s who lives in the same building, violinist with the Philharmonic Orchestra,.

The doctor spends his free time raising plants and birds in his house. He tells bits of his life to his cleaning lady, Barbara, in the form of episodes ending with "to be continued"; An adult losing his tooth, a child growing a tooth, how he lost his family during the war from one hour to the next.

The doctor meets Dorota as he is entering the elevator one morning, as she smokes a cigarette in the hallway looking out of the window. He greets her while she merely nods. She apparently wants to talk to him, but is not courageous enough at first. The doctor returns from buying milk and runs across Dorota again, since she has not moved from the spot where they met earlier. She remains silent and walks to his apartment door only after he has shut the door behind him. He opens and she still does not speak to him. He finally says: You want something from me. She replies, Yes. You probably remember me. I live in the penthouse. He says, he remembers her, because she ran over his dog with her car two years ago. Dorota finally introduces herself and reveals that she urgently wants a prognosis of her husband's condition, who is seriously ill in hospital. The doctor replies firm but courteously that his visiting hours are tomorrow afternoon. She replies "I am sorry that I did not run over you" and walks away. Later that day he meets her again still smoking in the same spot and asks her if the dead bunny which the concierge found is from her, which she denies. He then takes pity on her and asks her to come to the hospital in the afternoon. There he asks for Andrzej Geller's file and sees Dorota sitting at the bedside helplessly. She brought preserved strawberries and seeing him wants to take them back when the roommate says that Andrzej might eat it later. She greets the roommate good bye but not her husband. Dorota waits in front of the doctor´s office. the doctor tells her that Andrzej is very ill and that things are not looking good, but he also says that in his experience patients with even less chances than him have recovered, so his prognosis is guarded. She angrily says that "he must..." which he interrupts and deflects.

At the end of the day Dorota follows the doctor to his home in her car. when he opens she enters and smokes without asking permission, using her matchbox as an ashtray eventually causing a flame when extinguishing the cigarette. She reveals that she is 3 months pregnant, but not by her husband, and that this is her last chance to get pregnant. She insists one can loves two individuals at the same time. She wants to know if Andrzej will live. She has decided that if he dies, she will carry to term - if he survives, she will abort. At her home, a Mountaineering friend of her husband comes to return Andrzej's mountaineering gear. She angrily confronts him that Andrzej is still alive and that his gear belongs in the mountaineering club. The team will be leaving for India.

The next day Dorota goes to the gynaecologist and schedules an abortion in 2 days anyway. She meets with an acquaintance of her lover's, who is a pianist on tour. She receives a passport from her lover and a request to bring scores he left on his piano along, when she joins him abroad. At night her lover calls and she tells him she will abort their child. He says he wants to be with her and does not understand her.

The next day in the hospital´s medical laboratory, the doctor reviews 3 tissue samples under the microscope. He asks a medical resident for his opinion, who quickly says "disease progression" and starts "You have always taught us...", which the doctor interrupts harshly. A laboratory assistant looks sternly. It is ambiguous if Andrzej's disease is progressing or if he is recovering. When Dorota returns to the hospital ward she sees a corpse being rolled out and entering realizes it is not Andrzej but the roommate who appeared healthier than him the day before. She approaches her husband, who looks very weak, confesses her love and touches him for the first time in the film; the laboratory assistant/male nurse is shown staring intensely.

Dorota interrupts a doctor´s meeting to remind the doctor, that she is going to have an abortion the following day. He tells her not to go ahead with it, because Andrzej was dying, with metastases growing. She has him swear by this prognosis, which he does and walks out. He tells her, that he wants to listen to her in the philharmonic one day.

In a typically "Kieślowskiesque" scene, Andrzej opens his eyes for the first time and observes how a bee miraculously manages to climb out of a glass with preserved strawberries on a spoon. Andrzej gets up at night and knocks at the doctor's office door, to awaken the sleeping doctor. The doctor asks him to take a seat. Andrzej says that he came back from "beyond" where everything looked like it was decaying and that he was back now, happy being able to touch a table, and to have a baby with Dorota. He asks the doctor if he understands what it means to have a child, to which the doctor replies, 'I do'.^[3][4]

Theme

The second commandment is about sanctity of speech, where names are fundamental to identify and a moral choice; the importance of one's word in human life.Names as fundamental to identify and moral choice; the importance of one's word in life. Other moral or ethical dilemmas of the characters in this film are, Murder and punishmentn, and the nature and relation of love and passion.^[5]

Cast

• Krystyna Janda - Dorota
• Aleksander Bardini - the doctor
• Olgierd Łukaszewicz - Andrzej
• Artur Barciś - laboratory assistant
• Stanisław Gawlik - postman Wacek
• Krzysztof Kumor - gynaecologist
• Krystyna Bigelmajer - nurse
• Karol Dillenius - patient in Andrzej's hospital room
• Jerzy Fedorowicz - Janek, friend of Andrzej

In other roles

• Krystyna Bigelmajer
• Ewa Ekwinska,
• Piotr Siejka
• Aleksander Trąbczyński

Adaptations

In 2009 a Bengali film Dwando, directed by Suman Ghosh was based on this film where Ananya Chatterjee played the role of Dorota, Kaushik Sen played the role of Andrzej and Soumitra Chatterjee played the role of the doctor ^[6]

References