Today I saw my first two films at the 2026 Chicago International Film Festival. I don’t know if festival programmers designed it this way, but both films had significant homages to my favorite director, Krzysztof Kieslowski.

“Possible Love” by master Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong even had Kieslowski’s long-time collaborator Krzysztof Piesiewicz listed as an Executive Producer. Apparently the movie is in Piesiewicz’s series of unofficial cinematic remakes of The Dekalog (he almost accidentally acquired full rights to the series recently.)

And yet, the movie bears no resemblance to The Dekalog, especially not Dekalog 10, which it was supposed to align with. Instead, the movie is packed with nods to “Three Colours: Blue,” including an opening scene that is nearly a direct copy, a poster of the film showing up at a strategic moment and a documentarian played by Cho Yeo-jeong (best known for “Parasite”) sporting a very Binoche early 90s haircut throughout.

Dig a little deeper and the film seems almost Kieslowski centric. KK started his career as a documentary film maker, but eventually had moral objections to the documentary process, believing that he brought difficulties to the subjects of his films. That’s basically the story of “Possible Love,” and it’s climax is almost a direct correlation to the incident that pushed Kieslowski away from documentaries for good.

There is also a fascinating critique of Ye-ji by her friend (or is it just documentary subject?) Mi-ok, who tells her that her glamorous clothing feels out of place with the working class subjects of her work. This is nearly a direct copy of Kieslowski friend Hanna Krall’s concern about “Three Colours: Blue” that the film is about glamorous characters she doesn’t know or understand.

But “Possible Love” is a lot more than a series of Kieslowski hat tips and you don’t need to be obsessive about KK like I am to appreciate it. Lee Chang-dong is a genius of pacing, starting the film out as a slow burn character study, slowly building tension while keeping the same pace. Just like in his last film — the modern classic “Burning” — the movie starts making you feel like it’s a thriller without using any of the classic tropes of the genre. By the last 30 minutes, I had no idea where this movie might go, and it’s resolutions are both subtle and surprising.

This may be an excellent subject for a future scene-by-scene examination. “Possible Love” will hit theaters next week and will premiere on Netflix on November 6.

The other film I saw tonight — “Three Colors Pan African” — resembles Kieslowski in a more obvious way, in title and structure. Like Kieslowski’s career capping trilogy, Three Colors is three stories in one, defined by color palletes. It’s an entertaining enough film that is stylish and well acted throughout. It’s not the movie’s fault to show up on my viewing schedule right after a movie as skillful as “Possible Love.”

Many more movies to come for me over the next 10 days.