Dekalog V by Krzysztof Kieślowski

Krzysztof Kieślowski was an influential Polish film director and screenwriter known internationally for The Decalogue, The Double Life of Véronique, and The Three Colors Trilogy.

Born: June 27, 1941, Warsaw, Poland
Died: March 13, 1996, Warsaw, Poland

Thou shalt not kill.

Decalog V {1988} by Krzysztof Kieślowski starts with three different characters.


First, a soulless, faceless and repulsive youth with no redeeming qualities wandering about aimlessly across the city unleashing a senseless act of violence.

Second, a would-be lawyer being questioned by a panel over the issue of capital punishment

Finally a loathsome, taxi driver with a sadistic personality and a depraved sense of humour.

There are two killings – The killing of the Taxi driver and the killing of the killer. Both killings are disturbing {are not all killings disturbing?}

Watching the movie, it is impossible to feel sympathetic towards the killer – it is equally difficult to feel sympathetic toward the death penalty. The horror of both these killings is inexorable.

Why ordinary people turns into killers. Why do we kill?



The hangman, the prison guards, the prosecutor, the doctor, the priest and others who carry out the court’s order of capital punishment to execute the killer – are they too not killers? If killing is wrong – then why do we kill those who kill others?

You see the film and witness the 1st murder and come to a conclusion that such killers should not be allowed to live. You watch the execution by hanging and understand that under no circumstances you would ever play the role of the hangman. So you pay your taxes and the state hires someone to do it for you.

Some dialogues from the film are quite memorable: "punishment is a form of vengeance aiming at returning evil for evil without preventing the crime. But in the name of whom the law takes its revenge? Really in the name of the innocent ones?".

Does it intimidate all potential criminals?

Death cannot be prevented – but can killing be averted? Killing both the killer’s victim and then the killer by the authorities?

Have capital punishment become revenge killings? Can this be compared to the Old west way of living – the gunslingers, the bounty hunters, the duels, the lynch mobs, the bushwhackers? Do we have respect for life?

Does capital punishment lead to justice? Or is it just the irony of murder and state-funded execution
Are we not as guilty as the man who committed the murder when we resort to capital punishment? One is murder in the name of hate and the other is murder in the name of law

Is one’s existence and one’s action one and the same? Do we have the ability of separate ourselves with our jobs and actions?

The film does not teach or preach. There is no intellectual aggression. It just demonstrates, stirs, disturbs and stimulates you