Decalogue VII (1989)
I sort of assumed that since this was the commandment about stealing it would be about stealing something, but of course it goes deeper than merely possession of things. Who owns a child? You may kidnap a child, but can you steal one? Who owns the child? The biological mother, the legal mother or perhaps the one the child calls “mother”? Stealing needs a concept of ownership and I believe that is what is really being explored here by Kieslowski with this little complex family drama. Both Ewa and Majka feel they have been robbed of something by the other - both in the literal sense of the actual child but also their own experience of motherhood. And we musn’t forget the child, who is also getting robbed of her own childhood in this feud. Plenty to think of and unpack with this installment as it is basically everytime with Kieslowski.
Rating: 4