Dekalog: Two
1988 second part of the television series The Decalogue directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski
Dekalog: Two (Polish: Dekalog, dwa) is the second part of Dekalog, the drama series of films directed by Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski for television, connected to the second imperative of the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."
Dorota Geller, a married woman, faces a dilemma involving her sick husband's prognosis. Her husband's doctor, who believes in God, is made to swear by his prognosis, but gets it wrong.
The ten-part Dekalog series was exhibited in its entirety at the 46th Venice International Film Festival in September 1989, in the Special Events section. Dekalog: Seven premiered on Polish Television on 11 May 1990.
Plot
The episode focuses on two people: an elderly hospital doctor (Aleksander Bardini), who lives by himself in the ubiquitous Dekalog apartment block; and Dorota Geller (Krystyna Janda), a woman in her 30s who lives in the same building and is a violinist with the Philharmonic Orchestra.
The doctor spends his free time raising plants and birds in his house. He tells bits of his life to his cleaning lady, Barbara, in the form of episodes ending with "to be continued": an adult losing his tooth, a child growing a tooth, how he lost his whole family during the war.
The doctor meets Dorota as he is entering the elevator one morning, as she smokes a cigarette in the hallway looking out of the window. He greets her while she merely nods. She apparently wants to talk to him, but is not courageous enough at first.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Dekalog: Two” is 1988 second part of the television series The Decalogue directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Dekalog, second and part, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “1988 second part of the television series The Decalogue directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1080682. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1989 and 1990.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dekalog: Two” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.