Episode 7 of The Dekalog concerns another emotionally powerful storyline — the abduction of a child. It raises two interesting early impressions that are somewhat in conflict. First, episode 7 has elements of Ingmar Bergman’s films in it. There’s an in-your-face emotional aspect to the episode that is unlike anything else in the Dekalog. And also, like Bergman, family dynamics are central to the conflict.

That other vibe I pick up, something I don’t often feel in Bergman (although perhaps it is present in “Scenes from a Marriage”), is that none of the characters here seem like fully grown adults. You keep wanting a character to take a deep breath and make a sacrifice in someone else’s interest in this episode — and it happens eventually — but we have to deal with lots of childishness until we get there.

The episode opens with screaming. We do not know where it is coming from, we only hear the wails from the outside of the apartment complex. In the published script, the action turns to the object of that screaming right away. But Kieslowski decides to stretch out the mystery a bit.

We cut to Majka, a young woman officially dropping out of college. She was expelled for reasons that are never explained — the clerk asks why she did not ask to appeal, but she seems eager to push her studies into the past.

We hear yet more screaming, then another scene of Majka at a passport office. Behind Majka in line, there’s a character in sunglasses who looks so much like Bob Odenkirk that it’s a bit distracting. She tells the clerk she will be traveling to Canada to visit friends. We see her receive her own passport — remember, you have to apply to receive your passport in Poland during communism before every trip out of the country, you cannot hold it in between trips — and she’s also asking for the passport of an unidentified child. She’s told she needs permission of the mother to get the passport.

Now we return to the screaming. It is a child in her bed having a nightmare — he hand tightly clutching a bedpost. Majka tries to wake her up without success. Next, we see Ewa (the girl’s mother/grandmother) push Majka aside saying “you can’t calm her.” She takes the young girl Anya in her arms, shaking her. There was something called “shaken child syndrome” in the U.S. at that time which accounted for a significant number of child deaths. Apparently the risks of SCS hadn’t been exposed in Poland. After she awakes, she reassures her that there are no wolves chasing her.

Majka is upset that her mother took over and pushed her away. She seeks out her father Stefan, who has a workroom in the apartment and kept at work building a pipe organ while the young girl (his daughter/granddaughter) seemingly oblivious to it all. He doesn’t seem to get what his daughter is really upset about and says she used to scream as a young girl too. Majika talks about how her mom “keeps telling her about wolves.” Ewa listens in on this and says “don’t you need to get up early tomorrow?”

Next we are at a school. Majka is observing Anya while she plays outside. She calls to her, but gets no response. Next we see Majka enter a building. She creates a diversion to sneak past a security guard. The scene cuts to Anya and Ewa watching a very creepy looking puppet/mummers show on a stage. Anya seems captivated by the children’s show … and eventually she is swept onstage along with the other children watching, and they dance with the enormous puppets.

Majka has snuck backstage and as the onstage party is breaking up, she beckons Anya over and carries her gently away. Meanwhile, Ewa starts to wonder where Anya is. As Majka and Anya run down a hallway, the girl asks if they are playing hide and seek. Ewa continues to look for her within the exiting crowd.

When they get outside, Majka says “let’s play a joke on mom.” Anya tells her that she doesn’t have her jacket, but Majka is ready for that — she has a red jacket in her bag for her to put on. Ewa continues to look frantically for her. She goes outside and looks on the building steps. She goes back inside and find a woman counting cash — we assume someone who works for the theater company — and Ewa tells her that her daughter is missing. She says it again and tells her, you don’t understand.

At this point, we think Anya is Ewa’s daughter and don’t know for sure why Majka, her sister, is stealing her away. Does she think her mother is abusive?

We will soon find out the complicated, sad backstory.