The characters in “The Dekalog” have unique perspectives on religious faith. Believers tend to be non-dogmatic and disbelievers speak the language of doubt, not certainty. Pawel, having just come face to face with a dead dog, wants to engage his father in a conversation about life, death and meaning. Krystzstof does not disappoint.
Pawel asks why do people die. His dad answers “lots of reasons.” He goes down a litany of diseases, but ultimately lands on the heart no longer pumping blood and the brain not receiving the oxygen it needs. Pawel asks what’s left after someone dies. Kryztzstof answers that we live on in other people’s memories. They remember what someone achieves, what they looked like, quirky things about them, whether they were a good person. He then makes a joke that it’s too early to be discussing such things. He pours milk into his coffee — Pawel notices that it has gone sour and points it out to him. He then returns to reading obituaries in the paper and quotes: “for the peace of her soul,” and asks what is a soul,
His dad responds that it is just another way of talking about a person, Pawel mentions that his aunt (Kryztzstof’s sister) believes there is a soul. He nods and says that some people find it easier to go through life believing that way. Pawel then asks if he is a believer and his dad responds that, honestly, he does not know. He finally asks Pawel why all the question about death. After holding back tears a bit, he admits that he was so happy having solved the math equation in the morning, but then he went outside and saw the dead dog and thought “what does it matter?” Why care that Miss Piggy caught up to Kermit on her skis? But then, taking a religious stance, Pawel asks “maybe he’s better off?”
The scene now shifts to Pawel in school. There’s a news crew at the school and they are interrogating the administration about some issue related to milk in school and how it is poor quality and often thrown out by students. This mini plot goes nowhere, which is common for Kieslowski, he often throws in plot strands that are completely unrelated to the main story (in this case, the TV crew being there ends up being a pretext for why Pawel is caught on camera, so it serves the plot even though it doesn’t move it.)
We next see Pawel sliding on ice outside of school, both a call back to his Kermit/Miss Piggy computer adventure and a sign of how much he likes being on the ice (and is looking forward to getting ice skates for Christmas.) His aunt shows up at school and calls for him. Pawel then says he wants to drop his bag off at home even though they are eating dinner at her house. He wants to show her his computer, his object of faith.
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