"Actor: Olaf Lubaszenko"

• Dekalog | Blu Ray | (24/06/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Krzysztof Kieslowski's Dekalog is one of the greatest achievements of the late 20th century - as much an intricate work of moral philosophy as it is a collection of psychologically riveting narratives. Each standalone story revolves around the consequences arising from a breach of one of the Ten Commandments, but this is no finger-wagging religious tract: Kieslowski was one of film history's keenest observers of human nature, and his troubled, vainglorious, self-deceiving, deeply flawed characters (many played by some of Poland's finest character actors) are universally recognisable. Special Contents: 4K restoration of all ten episodes, presented in their original broadcast aspect ratios Original uncompressed Polish mono soundtrack, with optional English subtitles The Guardian Interview: Krzysztof Kieslowski, an onstage conversation with Derek Malcolm at London's National Film Theatre on 2 April 1990 to mark the British premiere of Dekalog Dekalog: An Appreciation, in which critic Tony Rayns, a Kieslowski champion for many decades, pays tribute to his masterpiece

• Dekalog - The Ten Commandments - Parts 6-10 | DVD | (27/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The double-disc set Dekalog, Parts 6-10, contains the last five of Kieslowski's 10 one-hour modern morality tales, each one loosely linked to one of the 10 Commandments. All set in and around the same drab, high-rise Warsaw housing estate, they intriguingly explore moral dilemmas without ever coming to any glib conclusions. As always, Kieslowski is far more interested in posing questions than in supplying answers. The series was originally made for Polish television, and has since been shown on TV stations all round the world, though never in the cinema. While they can easily be watched separately, being individual stories, there's no question that they gain in impact from being taken in conjunction with each other. Kieslowski used a different cinematographer for each film (except Nos. 3 and 9, both photographed by Piotr Sobocinski) to give a distinct feel to each story. While none of them--as you might expect from this director--offer a barrel of laughs, some are decidedly lighter in tone. Indeed the series ends on an almost farcical note: Dekalog 10 tells the tale of two brothers seized with paranoia when their late father leaves them a valuable stamp collection. By contrast, Dekalog 6 is one of the most moving and compassionate in the collection: a woman who finds a young lad is obsessively spying on her inflicts an intolerable humiliation on him. This, like No. 5 in the series, was expanded by 25 minutes or so into a feature film, A Short Film about Love. Here too, it seems a pity that the longer version couldn't have been included in the set. On the DVDs: Dekalog, Parts 1-6 is slightly better served for extras than the first set; this includes a 50-minute interview with Kieslowski, one of the last he gave before his early death. As usual, he stonewalls all the questions with barely concealed impatience. The transfer captures the muted colours of the original, and the Dolby 1.0 sound is crisp and clear. --Philip Kemp

• A Short Film About Love | DVD | (29/09/2003) from £6.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (185.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Kieslowski's 'A Short Film About Love' was expanded from one of the most lyrical episodes in 'Dekalog' his celebrated cycle of short films based on the Ten Commandments. A young man falls in love with an older woman who lives across the courtyard in the same Warsaw apartment block. He watches her and her succession of lovers until she becomes aware of his spying and confronts him with a sexual invitation.

• A Short Film About Love | Blu Ray | (29/07/2019) from £9.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Krysztof Kieslowski’'s A Short Film About Love was expanded from one of the most lyrical episodes in Dekalog, his celebrated cycle of short films based on the Ten Commandments. A young man falls in love with an older woman who lives across the courtyard in the same Warsaw apartment block. He watches her and her succession of lovers until she becomes aware of his spying and confronts him with a sexual invitation.