I have not dwelled on Kieslowski’s anchor themes very much throughout my series, in part because I find it more interesting the ways that he blurs the concepts or tries to subvert them. In the Dekalog, for example, there are often numerous commandments in play at a time and Kieslowski is most interested in the ways that morality doesn’t strictly follow rules.

But “Three Colours: Red” is different; It takes the French concept of fraternité literally. This is a movie very specifically about connections in all their forms — romantic relationships, family ties, professional connections, neighborhood acquaintances, even human-animal pairings. “Red” is about the difficulties of forming ties with people, the mysterious ways we’re brought together, and the nearly-mystical power of connections to heal us.

As connections begin to form, the prevalence of red increases. This segment begins with Valentine at the vet’s office. She’s sitting in a waiting area, a red panel painted on the wall behind her. She goes to check on Rita. The vet tells her that she’ll be ok — she’s mostly bruised — but she needs plenty of rest because she’s pregnant. Maybe this accounts for why Rita ran off in the first place? The vet asks if she’s going to leave the dog or take her home. Valentine opts to take her home.

We next see her back in her apartment. But before the scene begins, Kieslowski gives us a shot of Valentine’s car parked on the street, the car alarm blaring. Inside, Valentine is talking on the phone to her extremely annoying boyfriend who regularly misunderstands everything she says. She tells him that she is not alone and then tries to explain the story of how she hit Rita with her car. But the boyfriend thinks she’s making a cruel joke and tells her to stop. Rather than explain further, Valentine retreats from the conversation. She explains how she tried to return Rita to her rightful owner but he refused to take her. The boyfriend seems to want her to get rid of the dog.

Valentine adds a detail here about how the two of them met, how there was happenstance involved — if she hadn’t stepped out during a break, they never would have met. Valentine is clutching Rita’s paw during this discussion, another Kieslowski holding hands moment. She now hears the car alarm and asks her boyfriend to wait while she deals with it — but he says he’s in a hurry and has to go.

We switch now to that mysterious young man who keeps popping into the story, unexplained. He’s at his desk in his apartment. We can see the page where his lawbook opened after falling to the ground, he has underlined the passage. He’s now distracted by the sound of the car alarm. He looks out the wind and sees Valentine scurrying to the car to deal with it. The man starts to laugh gently and smile, but then we see another woman step into the same line of sight. It’s his girlfriend and he waves to her. Realizing she’s about to come up, he quickly straightens his bed a bit, pets his dog, then goes to the apartment buzzer to let her up.

Valentine is now with the photographer. They are going over proofs of their photo shoot. He shows her which pictures the clients preferred. She chooses a dramatic picture and the photographer agrees. He tells her that the billboard will be 65 feet by 25 and asks if people will recognize her. She asks back, who? The photographer then shuts off the light and makes a move on her … he asks who she is thinking about and Valentine replies “not you.”

She returns home to her neighborhood and goes through her ritual, first buying a newspaper. Except this time she pauses at the front page, something’s there that disturbs her. She folds the paper up a bit as if to hide its contents, then goes into her local coffee shop. There, she performs her other ritual, pulling the slot machine handle. Except now, it comes up three cherries, she’s won a bunch of coins. The proprietor of the shop comes up to her and says it’s a bad sign. Alluding to what’s in the newspaper, she tells him that she thinks she knows why she won. She decides not to stick around and goes back to her apartment.

Valentine tosses the coins into a jar at home. She then sits down and takes a look at that newspaper. It’s a story about heroin abusers on the street. She focuses on the picture of one young man shooting up. A neighbor then comes to the door, handing her an envelope — someone has delivered money for her. She has no idea who it is from. The neighbor glimpses the newspaper and tells Valentine that her brother is on the front page. She retorts “or someone who looks like him.” He asks if her family reads that paper, she says she doesn’t know and thanks him, he leaves.

She looks through a red address book and calls a number, asking for Marie. The caller identifies herself as her. Valentine asks if Marc will be home that night and she replies yes. He asks him to call her, no matter how late it is.

Now a new dog owner, Valentine takes Rita out to a park — attached to a long red leash. She tells Rita that she’s going to let her run around, but don’t go too far. Valentine clearly has a lot to learn about being a dog mom, especially considering that Rita had just run off days before from her previous owner. Rita, naturally, takes off running. Valentine follows her … then sees Rita run into that same open church door we saw in the previous scene.

What’s interesting about this segment of “Red” is the wide variety of strained relationships. Valentine has to navigate being a new dog mom, having a long-distance romantic relationship with clear strains, being hit on by a photographer she works with, dealing with a nosy neighbor, keeping tabs on a brother in trouble and trying to communicate through a girlfriend she doesn’t know. And amid all of this, there’s this young man on the periphery of her story who keeps moving in parallel to her, someone not available, but perhaps fated to cross her path eventually.