For much of “Three Colours: White,” we have no idea where this story is going. It’s not really a weakness, it heightens the sense of mystery — what is Karol’s ultimate goal? Here, we see Karol, with Mikolaj at his side, begin to roll out an empire.

They buy a huge office … then we get scenes of Karol commanding what I suppose is an import-export business. He seems decisive, fully in control. He’s wearing nice suits. Lots of people answer to him — including his old boss who called him a bastard. He’s even building a house for himself and demanding that the contractors get the walls built to the exact thickness he demands.

But none of this keeps him from waking up in the night calling Dominique’s name. The success is no substitute for love, even if, in her case, it’s mixed with quite a bit of hate. So he calls her in the middle of the night and does something surprising — he speaks to her in fluent French. He’s been doing more than making a fortune, he’s also been learning the language that held him back in Paris.

Karol wants Dominique’s attention most of all, he wants her to acknowledge him, treat him like a human being. But even after speaking to her beautifully in her language, when he asks her to say something, Dominique hangs up.

Everything Karol has done so far is not enough. If she won’t acknowledge him, he can’t convince her that he’s become a great success. So he needs to take dramatic action to force her attention.

This leads to another face from the Dekalog — the doctor from Dekalog 2, the great Aleksander Bardini — to make his appearance in “White.” Instead of a doctor, he’s now a lawyer, taking down Karol’s rewrite of his will. Except now, instead of giving everything to the Church as a defensive action, Karol wants to give it all to Dominique. The lawyer eyes him warily as he makes the changes.

We next see Karol meeting Mikolaj outdoors, fearing that all of the listening devices in the office might catch them saying something. Mikolaj asks “who would be listening?” which in the post-communist era is an interesting question. Karol shrugs it off, and then tells him: don’t be surprised to see my name in the obituaries soon. In fact, I need for you to validate my obituary and be executor of my will.

He tells him that this is his plan to get Dominique to Poland, and she will do it because “it’s a lot of money.”

Ok, so this is a plan, I suppose, but I have to pause here to note something which I think is important — Karol is now responsible for a lot of people. He has friends on the payroll, people whose lives depend on the success of his enterprise. What he’s doing — putting it all on what amounts to a roulette bet to get Dominique to Poland — is clearly insane, but also deeply irresponsible.

We have to walk away at this point from any belief that Karol is morally superior to Dominique. She acted with great cruelty towards him. What is coming is, in some ways, even more cruel, but it’s also spread more widely.