Matthew Winant - Decalogue 8 (March 29, 2009)

The most intriguing aspect within Decalogue 8 was that it was very obviously a Catholic made film. The commandment “Thou shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” is the eighth commandment in Catholicism, not the ninth commandment like it is for Judaism, Anglicanism, and other Protestant denominations. Also, the actions and view points from the characters is very Catholic, the woman who says that taking the Jewish girl in and making her their “child” is breaking the commandment of bearing false witness is, in my experience as a Catholic, a very “Catholic” thing to do. The student who says that the family should have abandoned the commandment for saving the child's life is correct, although the action may or may not be correct in the eyes of God. The themes in the film are a fantastic representation for survivors of the Holocaust as well, the child searches out the family that would have adopted her in a mindset that we cannot fully explain. When we first meet the woman she is only interested the ethics professor's work, and while listening to the story being told we cannot tell her motive; such as if she is searching for the woman out of anger, or distaste. The reaction to the would-be-adoptive father is very interesting as it seems that he has lost all faith in his life ever since that moment in 1943. He wishes to keep busy and to live in the mundane, and one can always wonder as to if his hole in life can be filled by taking back up faith and following Christ.