Decalogue 7

Garrett Lambur
So as I sit here about to write this response to Decalogue number 7 I am experiencing a bit of internal controversy. After watching the movie I cannot fully decide which party I was pulling for more. There was a big part of me that wished the daughter would escape with her daughter but there was the part of me that recognized how much trouble this might represent for daughter in the future. Kieslowski out did himself in this film, presenting an easily understood commandment in a very controversial manner. There were arguments in the film that supported both sides. The ex-boyfriend sought an argument that it would be the best for the child if she was returned to her grandmother while the grandmother revealed her one sided love of the child and not her own daughter. If the daughter had managed to make it to Canada with her child I am pretty sure I would not have considered it stealing, it was her own child. Perhaps the child would have been young enough that with time she would have come to accept her new mother. With the ending as it was though, there was a big part of me that just could not support the grandmother. She cared for and loved the child but only at the expense of her own daughter, who was not an unloving person of the child. Though it was never established that the grandmother truly sought out having the child as her own not to save her own daughter but for her own benefit, her actions in the film strongly supported this idea. When she finally finds the child at the train station she quickly brings her into a close embrace but when she sees her own daughter, who was running away from her, she does not know what to say. Her love of the granddaughter was stronger than that of the daughter and the father had recognized this and mentioned it earlier in the film. Thus I begin to lean more in favor against the grandmother. What makes it very hard to pick a side in this matter is that each side was looking out for the best interest of the child, neither was attempting to wrong her in anyway but only provide what they thought was the best love. The commandment though shalt not steal seems to be simple enough but rarely are we faced with enforcing such a simple sentiment on so convoluted of a situation. This is perhaps one of the best examples of what may be called an ethical dilemma. There is neither a right answer nor a wrong answer but only two possible sides with each having its own merit. We studied these somewhat in Leadership but nothing that we studied portrayed the issue that can be presented in such a situation as well as this film did. At the end though, I have to follow my gut and wish that the daughter had gone to Canada with her child.