Dekalog Seven isn't the strongest of the ten, but, like Dekalog Five, Kieslowski takes a fairly straightforward commandment and adds a twist to it. Sure, we may think Majka steal Ania, but, as Majka says, can you really steal something that was yours to begin with? It's an interesting question, and Kieslowski forces you to consider (And ultimately decide) who, Ewa or Majka, is really at fault for stealing Ania. But that's typical Kieslowski. To have a straightforward plot with a cut-and-dry scenario would be far too easy for him, and I've come to expect nothing less from his work. The types of questions he subtly asks the viewer are more important than any moral he could tell us because it forces us to question our own values and morals, instead of being told, and this kind of questioning is why Kieslowski and his works are so highly regarded.
12 Reviews
Beautiful!
Polaris_DiB31 July 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Ahhh, the layers... the layers is what makes such seemingly easy-to-digest 60 minute episodes turn into something to dwell on forever.
In this particular episode, involving the commandment "Thou shalt not steal," a young mother tries to reclaim her true daughter from her grandmother-cum-legal mother, and the drama that develops as they try to work out what was hidden long before to avoid scandal.
Of course a huge issue involves who rightfully should be mother to the young girl... is it by blood, legality, comfort, choice? Any of those? And who stole from whom here, anyway, the grandmother from the mother, the mother from the grandmother, or even simply societal decency? Furthermore, what else is really being taken here? There's also issues of pride, a missing childhood, and an entire relationship ruined.
Of all of the episodes of the Decalogue, this is one I feel I could return to quite often to try to figure out the questions I have been given above, as it has so much going on behind hidden motivations and secrecy.
--PolarisDiB
In this particular episode, involving the commandment "Thou shalt not steal," a young mother tries to reclaim her true daughter from her grandmother-cum-legal mother, and the drama that develops as they try to work out what was hidden long before to avoid scandal.
Of course a huge issue involves who rightfully should be mother to the young girl... is it by blood, legality, comfort, choice? Any of those? And who stole from whom here, anyway, the grandmother from the mother, the mother from the grandmother, or even simply societal decency? Furthermore, what else is really being taken here? There's also issues of pride, a missing childhood, and an entire relationship ruined.
Of all of the episodes of the Decalogue, this is one I feel I could return to quite often to try to figure out the questions I have been given above, as it has so much going on behind hidden motivations and secrecy.
--PolarisDiB
Lawful and unlawful mothers deprived of filial affection.
Aquilant11 April 2005
The filial love pushed to the extreme is the main point of one of the most despairing episodes of the whole series. Painted in soft tones of a warm color photography "Dekalog 7", a sorrowful appeal against the theft of maternal affections, a touching scream of desperation against every form of domestic psychological abuse, describes the emotional journey of lonely souls towards a past immersed in voids of time and memory, thwarted by walls of self-referential egoism and full of wrong choices due to scarce sense of consciousness.
Lawful and unlawful mothers deprived of filial affection. Human beings wandering through the fury of winds of despair whose smell they can scent over and over again. An innocent child at the mercy of acts of adult selfishness destined to affect the course of human events. These are the main points of this collective drama of existence full of regression periods in infancy, clear admonishment in favor of a quiet and sensible mother-daughter relationship.
The director follows the story development most closely, avoiding to keep the events at a distance as if they were no concern of him, showing on the contrary a clear sensitiveness towards this anomalous drama of two mothers fighting over the possession of the same daughter driven passively from pillar to post. The seventh commandment, "Thou shalt not steal", must be intended in this case as the explication of a dangerous crime: the theft of a child both by her grandmother and by her real mother; the most blamable one depends on our points of view. In my opinion, for instance, to claim the right of someone else's maternity is the most reprehensible action because it does violence to the nature itself, bereaving the human being of his most precious treasure, fruit of a mutual choice of love. As usual, Kieslovski shows his complete respect of the par condicio: he finds both the fictitious mother and the real one guilty: the first one for having taken possession of someone else's motherhood; the second one for having stolen her real child. According to divine law (and to him) a theft is always a theft, and in this tormented quarrel between grown-up persons heedless of the potential damages suffered by a delicate childish psyche, will the ingenuous spontaneity of a child succeed in breaking the wall of incomprehension and hostility between kinsmen?
Lawful and unlawful mothers deprived of filial affection. Human beings wandering through the fury of winds of despair whose smell they can scent over and over again. An innocent child at the mercy of acts of adult selfishness destined to affect the course of human events. These are the main points of this collective drama of existence full of regression periods in infancy, clear admonishment in favor of a quiet and sensible mother-daughter relationship.
The director follows the story development most closely, avoiding to keep the events at a distance as if they were no concern of him, showing on the contrary a clear sensitiveness towards this anomalous drama of two mothers fighting over the possession of the same daughter driven passively from pillar to post. The seventh commandment, "Thou shalt not steal", must be intended in this case as the explication of a dangerous crime: the theft of a child both by her grandmother and by her real mother; the most blamable one depends on our points of view. In my opinion, for instance, to claim the right of someone else's maternity is the most reprehensible action because it does violence to the nature itself, bereaving the human being of his most precious treasure, fruit of a mutual choice of love. As usual, Kieslovski shows his complete respect of the par condicio: he finds both the fictitious mother and the real one guilty: the first one for having taken possession of someone else's motherhood; the second one for having stolen her real child. According to divine law (and to him) a theft is always a theft, and in this tormented quarrel between grown-up persons heedless of the potential damages suffered by a delicate childish psyche, will the ingenuous spontaneity of a child succeed in breaking the wall of incomprehension and hostility between kinsmen?
Stealing as a metaphor
JuguAbraham18 June 2003
The film can be evaluated at several levels. It offers several layers of meaning, teasing the viewer as it progresses.
Kidnapping your own daughter from the ownership of your mother is a bizarre situation. Two women want to own a young child--the biological mother and the grandmother who yearned to "suckle" another. Interestingly the script looks at three generations of the same sex. The males seem to be the outsiders, yet balanced in comparison to the females in the movie.
"Thou shall not steal" is the commandment that is apparently broken. The film leads you to believe that the mother has "kidnapped" her own child. The film seems to argue quite elegantly that the real thief is the grandparent not the "kidnapping" mother. The "kidnapping" is symbolic--the police is mentioned not seen. The law presented in the film is moral one, not a civil one. In the end, it is the natural affection the child yearns for that is stolen, not by an individual but by circumstances (the state?).
Is this a veiled criticism of Poland, the effect of communism on the young emerging democracy? What would have happened if the "stealing" within and without the movie did not take place? The film begins with the sound of the child crying that can be heard outside the walls of the house; the film ends with the silent cry of the child in the open, without walls and yet the cry cannot be heard, only seen (harking back to Rod Steiger's silent cry at the end of "The Pawnbroker"). Is fleeing to Canada (read: Western capitalism) a better option than staying back in the overgrown, ummowed gardens (with dilapidated merry-go-rounds) of Poland? Is making teddy bears a better life than taking care of your child? Is he making an argument for "stealing" becoming honorable for the cause of freedom? The film leaves you with more questions than answers, yet providing a mature level of entertainment for the intelligent viewer.
I had the good fortune to have met Kieslowski in 1982 after he made "Camera Buff" in Bangalore, India, a film that did not have the sparkle and maturity of his later works. Little did I imagine that he would go on to make the "Three colors" trilogy and "Decalogue". These later works make you wonder at the ambiguity of his later work--the beguiling smile of a Mona Lisa as he deals with religion, politics, morals with a twinkle in his eye.
This episode may be seem to present an unusual story but what a masterful way to present it. Innocence is limited to one character in the entire film: the child. Just one word describes the episode, brilliant in philosophy and in cinema, thanks partly to cinematographer Dariusz Kuc.
Theologically analyzed, the film offers more for reflection. The subject of stealing goods is arguably covered by the 10th commandment "thou shalt not covet thy neighbours goods" and the seventh commandment is often subtly interepreted as "thou shalt not kidnap" (read Wikepedia on "Ten Commandments" quoting a Jewish Rabbi, Rashi). This is probably the reason why the film is all about kidnapping and not about stealing goods which is dealt by the director and screenplay writer in Decalogue 10--which is all about stealing goods and about "coveting thy neighbor's goods"--confusing many critics who missed the distinction being made on screen. This is a fine example of cinema that invites you to read more after seeing the film (and revise your own judgement). Pieseiewicz and Kiesolwski had done their homework!
Kidnapping your own daughter from the ownership of your mother is a bizarre situation. Two women want to own a young child--the biological mother and the grandmother who yearned to "suckle" another. Interestingly the script looks at three generations of the same sex. The males seem to be the outsiders, yet balanced in comparison to the females in the movie.
"Thou shall not steal" is the commandment that is apparently broken. The film leads you to believe that the mother has "kidnapped" her own child. The film seems to argue quite elegantly that the real thief is the grandparent not the "kidnapping" mother. The "kidnapping" is symbolic--the police is mentioned not seen. The law presented in the film is moral one, not a civil one. In the end, it is the natural affection the child yearns for that is stolen, not by an individual but by circumstances (the state?).
Is this a veiled criticism of Poland, the effect of communism on the young emerging democracy? What would have happened if the "stealing" within and without the movie did not take place? The film begins with the sound of the child crying that can be heard outside the walls of the house; the film ends with the silent cry of the child in the open, without walls and yet the cry cannot be heard, only seen (harking back to Rod Steiger's silent cry at the end of "The Pawnbroker"). Is fleeing to Canada (read: Western capitalism) a better option than staying back in the overgrown, ummowed gardens (with dilapidated merry-go-rounds) of Poland? Is making teddy bears a better life than taking care of your child? Is he making an argument for "stealing" becoming honorable for the cause of freedom? The film leaves you with more questions than answers, yet providing a mature level of entertainment for the intelligent viewer.
I had the good fortune to have met Kieslowski in 1982 after he made "Camera Buff" in Bangalore, India, a film that did not have the sparkle and maturity of his later works. Little did I imagine that he would go on to make the "Three colors" trilogy and "Decalogue". These later works make you wonder at the ambiguity of his later work--the beguiling smile of a Mona Lisa as he deals with religion, politics, morals with a twinkle in his eye.
This episode may be seem to present an unusual story but what a masterful way to present it. Innocence is limited to one character in the entire film: the child. Just one word describes the episode, brilliant in philosophy and in cinema, thanks partly to cinematographer Dariusz Kuc.
Theologically analyzed, the film offers more for reflection. The subject of stealing goods is arguably covered by the 10th commandment "thou shalt not covet thy neighbours goods" and the seventh commandment is often subtly interepreted as "thou shalt not kidnap" (read Wikepedia on "Ten Commandments" quoting a Jewish Rabbi, Rashi). This is probably the reason why the film is all about kidnapping and not about stealing goods which is dealt by the director and screenplay writer in Decalogue 10--which is all about stealing goods and about "coveting thy neighbor's goods"--confusing many critics who missed the distinction being made on screen. This is a fine example of cinema that invites you to read more after seeing the film (and revise your own judgement). Pieseiewicz and Kiesolwski had done their homework!
Decalogue 7 : Polish director Kieslowski gave us all an excellent lesson in parenting.
FilmCriticLalitRao13 January 2014
In Decalogue 7, some tough questions are asked by Kieslowski about parenting especially the roles played by both a father as well as a mother. This film is told through the tough life of Ania-a young girl raised by her real grand mother Ewa, who does not know that in reality Majka is her real mother. As the film develops, audiences are bombarded with tough ethical as well as moral questions. Who is the real mother to a child ? The woman who gives "biological birth" to a child or a woman who is merely better at looking after a child. These questions make a lot of sense for Ania as it is not her mother Majka but grand mother Ewa who is able to allay her fears whenever she wakes up in night due to bad dreams about wolves. Regardless of what one might say, a true woman who has borne a child would always want herself to be addressed as "Maman/Mummy/Mother". She would never appreciate her child calling her by the first name. It is due to this dilemma that Majka is compelled to take Ania with her. This twist in the story raises a simple yet highly complex question : Can one steal what belongs to one self ? The answer is simple. No, one cannot steal what belongs to oneself. One merely needs to ask about one's own belongings if they have gone into other hands. This is the ethical element which Kieslowski must have wanted to present in his film. Like in some other films made by him, Kieslowski is honest as far the portrayal of characters is concerned. In Decalogue 7, the portrayal of men is brutal, frank and honest without any embellishments as men in this short film were mere mute spectators. They are not being able to make much difference in the lives of their daughters. Lastly, what makes this short film a good moving experience is that the maturity level of Ania is very high compared to other girls of her age group.
Loss
tedg7 January 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Amongst the ten short films of the Decalogue, there is some consistency. Each one traces a knot tied by collaborator Piesiewicz. These are sometimes pretty deep and rich, as we have here.
On that, Kieslowski layers immensely effective cinematic sight, even Tarkovsky-like notions of what constitutes sight and knowing. He also pours life into the characters by movement, manner and color. His choices are so effective and integrated they turn these knots into little cinematic poems.
They are great if you like poems we have so few, after all. Or if you are affected by his long form masterpiece, Tree Colors and want some insights on how better to live it, you might come to the Decalogue for the childhood of your lover.
In these ten films twelve if you count the two extensions you'll find all sorts of different balance between Piesiewicz and Kieslowski. In this one, the seventh as ordered by the DVD release, you'll get almost exclusively Piesiewicz.
In other words, the cinematic ideas are competent but ordinary and the knot of the thing is extraordinary. You probably already know the main idea: a child with two warring mothers, one of whom is a child herself. Piesiewicz always has a reflected second story, here it is a man.
That man was a powerful writer, a man with a huge future that was stolen when he impregnated a student (and daughter of the headmistress). Now, he is a tragedy himself, the only one that Kieslowski explores. If we had a long form of this story, all the filmic coding would emanate from him.
But of the seven, this has little Kieslowski in it.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
On that, Kieslowski layers immensely effective cinematic sight, even Tarkovsky-like notions of what constitutes sight and knowing. He also pours life into the characters by movement, manner and color. His choices are so effective and integrated they turn these knots into little cinematic poems.
They are great if you like poems we have so few, after all. Or if you are affected by his long form masterpiece, Tree Colors and want some insights on how better to live it, you might come to the Decalogue for the childhood of your lover.
In these ten films twelve if you count the two extensions you'll find all sorts of different balance between Piesiewicz and Kieslowski. In this one, the seventh as ordered by the DVD release, you'll get almost exclusively Piesiewicz.
In other words, the cinematic ideas are competent but ordinary and the knot of the thing is extraordinary. You probably already know the main idea: a child with two warring mothers, one of whom is a child herself. Piesiewicz always has a reflected second story, here it is a man.
That man was a powerful writer, a man with a huge future that was stolen when he impregnated a student (and daughter of the headmistress). Now, he is a tragedy himself, the only one that Kieslowski explores. If we had a long form of this story, all the filmic coding would emanate from him.
But of the seven, this has little Kieslowski in it.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
'Dekalog': Part 7- Possession as human need and temptation and the sanctity of dominion
TheLittleSongbird11 February 2017
'Dekalog' is a towering achievement and a televisual masterpiece that puts many feature films to shame, also pulling off a concept of great ambition brilliantly. Although a big admirer of Krzysztof Kieślowski (a gifted director taken from us too early), and who has yet to be disappointed by him, to me 'Dekalog' and 'Three Colours: Red' sees him at his best.
All of 'Dekalog's' episodes have so many great things, and it is an example of none of the lesser episodes being bad. This is testament to the high quality of 'Dekalog' as an overall whole and how brilliant the best episodes are. Episode 7 may not be as good as Episodes 1, 4, 5 and 6, being not quite as eventful or quite as rich thematically, but is still terrific stuff.
Every single one of 'Dekalog's' episodes are exceptionally well made. The production values in Episode 7 are as ever atmosphere-enhancing, beautiful and haunting to look at and fascinating. Many of the images are impossible to forget and enhance the poignant atmosphere. The direction is quietly unobtrusive, intelligently paced and never too heavy, and the music is suitably intricate.
The themes and ideals are used to full potential, and the characters and their relationships and conflicts feel so real and emotionally resonant without being heavy-handed. Despite being based around one of the ten commandments, don't let that put you off, resemblance to religion is relatively scant.
It is not as rich in story as a few of the previous episodes, but the atmosphere is both harrowing and heart-rending, Episode 7 definitely being one of the most poignant 'Dekalog' episodes. The character development and interactions really fascinate and compelling in their realism. The acting is superb as to be expected, with complexity and nuances by the bucket-load.
Concluding this review, not one of the best 'Dekalog' episodes but still terrific. 9/10 Bethany Cox
All of 'Dekalog's' episodes have so many great things, and it is an example of none of the lesser episodes being bad. This is testament to the high quality of 'Dekalog' as an overall whole and how brilliant the best episodes are. Episode 7 may not be as good as Episodes 1, 4, 5 and 6, being not quite as eventful or quite as rich thematically, but is still terrific stuff.
Every single one of 'Dekalog's' episodes are exceptionally well made. The production values in Episode 7 are as ever atmosphere-enhancing, beautiful and haunting to look at and fascinating. Many of the images are impossible to forget and enhance the poignant atmosphere. The direction is quietly unobtrusive, intelligently paced and never too heavy, and the music is suitably intricate.
The themes and ideals are used to full potential, and the characters and their relationships and conflicts feel so real and emotionally resonant without being heavy-handed. Despite being based around one of the ten commandments, don't let that put you off, resemblance to religion is relatively scant.
It is not as rich in story as a few of the previous episodes, but the atmosphere is both harrowing and heart-rending, Episode 7 definitely being one of the most poignant 'Dekalog' episodes. The character development and interactions really fascinate and compelling in their realism. The acting is superb as to be expected, with complexity and nuances by the bucket-load.
Concluding this review, not one of the best 'Dekalog' episodes but still terrific. 9/10 Bethany Cox
Haunting
Hitchcoc20 June 2021
The young woman in the film has had a child that has been raised by her mother and father. They are judgmental because she was immature and, in their eyes, irresponsible. It is obvious that her stock is greatly diminished at home. So one day, she waits till a children's' play is over and kidnaps her daughter. This is a no win situation. The fact is she is not capable of keeping the child healthy and happy. They are on the run but have no real place to go. This is a sad tale of looking for some kind of independence when that boat has left the dock.
"Though shalt not steal"
ackstasis6 March 2011
Episode 7 of 'Dekalog' is substantially less intense than most of those that preceded it, and seems rather less complex, as well. Young Majka (Maja Barelkowska) has surrendered her daughter Ania, the product of a teenager pregnancy, to the care of her mother, Ewa (Anna Polony). Here, Kieslowski condemns the sins of both parties: Ewa for taking possession of Ania as a substitute daughter (following her own inability to conceive a second child), and Majka for "stealing" back the child, despite being an inexperienced and arguably unfit mother. There's a bit of Tarkovskian flair in the cinematography by Dariusz Kuc. In one scene, Majka and Ania pause at the riverside beneath a bridge, and watch the current swirl debris downstream. It's such a lonely moment, incredibly peaceful and yet hauntingly so.
about motherhood
Kirpianuscus17 November 2018
...or past. Or fear. Or acceptance. Or loneliness. Each road works. For the great art of detail, impeccable cinematography, a story remaining, after 30 years, more contemporary than in 1989 and, sure, for the genius to tell the right story about viewer. A young woman . Her parents. Her sister who is , in fact, her daughter. A desire. And a choice. Having as axis a word. A hug. And the clash against the truth becoming clear only when you discover yourself. An episode reminding to me few Romanian films under Communism. A film about motherhood, selfishness and, maybe, about the essence of freedom. After the broke of childhood.
Dekalog 7
chaos-rampant12 March 2016
The template for Dekalog is that we enter a life with its anxieties (a dying husband on a hospital bed, a husband who disappeared on Christmas Eve) and at some point the narrative surface gives way and reveals a more fluid, more interdepentent life of suffering beneath.
This is evident here in a child sister abducted (after a theatric performance no less, after the swirl of fiction) and by next morning she has become a daughter. We explore a bit more but it never amounts to more than drama about the choices we have to make.
The Kieslowski I like, as I am discovering with these Dekalog viewings, is that way he has of visually slipping ahead and back. This is on the more typical end of the spectrum, all about moral anxiety and doublebinds. The ending is both emotional and convenient, poured on as syrup instead of laid out as vision.
This is evident here in a child sister abducted (after a theatric performance no less, after the swirl of fiction) and by next morning she has become a daughter. We explore a bit more but it never amounts to more than drama about the choices we have to make.
The Kieslowski I like, as I am discovering with these Dekalog viewings, is that way he has of visually slipping ahead and back. This is on the more typical end of the spectrum, all about moral anxiety and doublebinds. The ending is both emotional and convenient, poured on as syrup instead of laid out as vision.
Another Freudian Forray into Child-Parent Relationship
simuland29 December 2000
Custody battle between 22 year-old mother and her own mother over daughter born to the former when she was just 16. Thus, touches on overweening parental possessiveness alluded to in IV, VI and VIII. Very modest in scope, using few actors, a minimum of sets. Like VI, it suffers from lack of credibility: the young mother, a reasonably intelligent woman, undertakes a rather scatterbrained kidnap. Too much of the conflict takes place in the past, not in the movie itself. And, yes, there's color coding. Despite its shortcomings, the anguish is real, and deep enough to force one to recall one's own relationship with one's parents: Another Freudian foray.
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