The Portrayal of Birth and Death in Kieslowski's "Dekalog"
Sofia Gourgoulianni

Abstract
Krzystof Kieslowski has undoubtedly been one of the great directors of the 20th century. Even though he began directing films with direct political dimension, he was later on drawn to the metaphysics of human relations as the basic subject of his filmography. In 1989 he prepared a series for the polish television with the ten independent episodes, entitled “Dekalog” and inspired from the “Ten Commandments”. The series consists of ten deeply humane stories and is considered as an artistic monument of Kieslowski’s basic problematic over the metaphysics of human relations. As each human life and relation begins with birth and ends with death, we have chosen to examine the way birth and death are treated in Kieslowski’s “Dekalog” and the symbolisms they entail in each different episode.

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