In the last segment, I mentioned how this episode could use some American style melodrama. But I’ve had second thoughts about that conclusion. There’s actually quite a bit of drama in this episode, and in these scenes featuring Majka and Wojtek. The challenge is reading Eastern European faces.

It is sometimes difficult to tell when an Eastern European is expressing something emotionally challenging. You hear it in the voice more than you see it on the face. The actors do a superb job here keeping the expressions fairly constant — Majka has a sad expression throughout, Wojtek looks slightly annoyed. But their words and vocal tones don’t always directly match their expressions (or lack thereof.)

So as the scene picks up, Majka is voicing how she has hated her mother for quite some time. But she looks and sounds sad as she says it. Wojtek responds, you are exactly the same as before (which was 6 years ago.) It is always either/or, nothing in the middle. He says this with a clipped voice and an expression that looks like it is hiding something, although it’s hard to tell whether it’s affection, anger or a mixture of both.

I need to digress for a moment here to point out that accusing someone of “always” doing something is to engage in the same kind of black and white thinking that he is accusing her of in the dialogue, so some projection is likely happening.

But Majka does not challenge his assertion — she says that he has taken Anya and is not giving her back, and that she’s been thinking about it for three or four years. She adds that she is no longer the polite girl in the navy blue skirt who fell in love with her Polish teacher because he spoke so differently from everyone else. (By the way, writers love nothing more than throwing in lines like this, creating mythical creatures who love them for their best dialogue.)

Wojtek tells her that she still has lots of options, she hasn’t stolen anything or killed anyone. Majka responds that you can’t steal what is already yours — but she does feel like killing her mother.

He responds oddly to this, saying she doesn’t know much about her mother, then stands up to walk away. She tells him that she recently learned a thing or two — that her mother couldn’t have another child after she was born, so she saw an opportunity when Anya was born to have the other child she always wanted.

Wojtek responds to this by saying “you agreed to the arrangement.” His face looks angry as he says this. Majka points out that she was only 16, leading him to retort “not much younger than Joan of Ark” She responds “so you kept saying.” He tosses out water from his glass.

This is one of the most irritating comments in the Dekalog. Wojtek never considers whether a 16 year old is mature enough for an adult to have sex with — never mind that she was his student — and then when she gets pregnant, he becomes angry and judgmental that she’s incapable of taking the adult responsibility of having the child as a couple.

Majka doesn’t take the bait here. She goes back to her parents at that time — they said they took on parentage so she could finish her studies, but now she knows they just wanted to be mom and dad to another baby. He responds that there was scandal too, because she was the headmistress and he was her teacher. Again, this guy … he’s really lucky he didn’t end up in prison.

Then he adds: but it all hinged on you. Yes, put all the responsibility on a scared 16 year old girl. He tells her that she should have said she wanted the child to be their’s. She responds that he was partially responsible too, that her mother told him to remain quiet if he didn’t want trouble for seducing a minor and to keep his job.

We don’t really get to the bottom here about exactly what happened. Wojtek hints that Ewa lied when she claimed he went quiet in the face of threats, but he only says that she lied “a little bit.” He then complains about how strange it is that in Poland a child could be assigned to someone else, simply at the direction of a doctor.

Majka then talks about how she wants to take Anya away with her and that she has a birth certificate showing her as the mother. She muses that he wouldn’t recognize Ewa, that she shows motherly warmth towards Anya that she doesn’t let anyone else, including her, see. She tells an odd story of how, when Anya was six months old, Ewa had her suckle on her breasts even though she didn’t have any milk.

But now something happens that is quintessentially Kieslowskian … as Wojtek reaches over to fix Anya’s blanket, she (while still asleep) grabs hold of his index finger and won’t let it go. It returns us to the motif of hands from episodes 6. Wojtek eventually goes outside to fold some sheets — he appears shaken from the events of the day — and Majka is down on the floor with Anya, stroking her hand. Anya sees a bandaid on her finger, then removes the bandaid and kisses the wound, telling her that it won’t hurt anymore.

Majka asks Wojtek to watch Anya (who has gone back to sleep) that she’s going to call her mother to torture her. Wojtek offers his own phone, but Majka says she worries the police will tap phones, it’s better for her to use a pay phone.

Wojtek goes to Anya’s bedside and starts to read her one of his stories. She’s still asleep, but he says it is a story about her mother and grandmother. It’s a very odd story. It begins “An Italian movie. Some scenes that I can sense around me.” He doesn’t finish the story. A strange looking man in a large afro comes to the door and asks if he has the bears … it has the feel of a drug deal, but I assume there’s nothing illegal stuffed in the bears (or is there?)

He gives him a few bags of bears to take away. The guy asks about the little girl, he says it is his — and don’t come by for a few days, there may be trouble because of her.

So, a great deal happens in these scenes. It’s hard for me to feel an ounce of sympathy for Wojtek. The only redeeming quality he seems to have is that Anya seems drawn to him, which maybe opens up some potential for him to change.