Before I get onto the conclusion of this episode, I want to recount the ways it is a disappointment:

1) Filler. As I’ve noted in previous essays, this episode has maybe 30 minutes of story and lots of padding around it to make it take the same form of other episodes. In most TV shows, you wouldn’t even notice it, but Kieslowski’s storytelling is so economical that you usually get 90 to 120 minutes of a story within an hour.

2) Terrible camera work. For the most part, Kieslowski’s decision to use 10 different cinematographers in the series pays off. The episodes take on a slightly different character and the directors of photography do their best to put a distinctive stamp on their work. This episode stands out for its ineptness — strange close ups pop up for no reason, the lighting poorly indicates the passage of time, which disorients viewers about when certain scenes are taking place. It feels like it was shot by a student DP.

3) A lack of nerve. Most Dekalog episodes are willing to go to extremely uncomfortable places — maybe a mother should abort her child, maybe this affair was ok, maybe this murderer had some justification for his brutality, maybe this peeping Tom shouldn’t be judged. But here, the Kyrzsztofs had the opportunity to tell a story that would make us rethink our judgments about the way people behaved in the holocaust, but it ultimately copped out and decided not to go there. It’s an understandable decision, but when they decided not to reveal that moral wound, I have to wonder if the Kryzsztofs had a story left to tell.

To underscore my point about filler, this segment begins with Zofia driving. It’s unnecessary to show us this at all, we could cut right to her car pulling up to the tailor’s shop. But no, instead we get to glimpse Zofia looking over towards the passenger seat and smiling, which in effect breaks the fourth wall because we don’t even get a cutaway to Elżbieta, she’s just oddly smiling at the audience.

And then she enters a tunnel … and we stay in that tunnel for a good 10 seconds. Why? We’re not building up any suspense — we don’t even know what this visit to the tailor’s shop is all about. But the episode needed some stretching out, so here we are.

Zofia gets out of the car, then declares to Elżbieta, who smirks briefly, that she’s going to do some shopping. Instead of just entering the shop, Elżbieta peers through the window for an uncomfortably long time, which confuses the tailor who sees her hovering. She eventually comes in the front door, the tailor greets her and she says that she wants to talk to him.

He says “Good god, why?” She gives him her name, he shrugs and says he doesn’t know her. She tells him that they almost met during the war. He interrupts her and says he doesn’t want to talk about what happened during the war, or after the war, or even what’s happening right now. He can make her some clothing if she’d like.

He asks her to pick out a model and opens up a fashion magazine. She says “you were to rescue you me, but you were prevented.” He still doesn’t want to talk and asks her if she has her own material, because it’s hard to buy any material these days.

Elżbieta continues, telling him the date and time of when it was to happen. If you can’t tell from my description, this scene is already tedious to me — if he doesn’t want to talk about it, let the man get back to his job. Maybe it’s extremely traumatic for him.

He briefly breaks from his refusals to note that he was 22. Then he asks if she wants a coat. Elżbieta pointed out that his magazines are very old, would he be offended if she sent some new ones? He agreed that they are old and people brought them from abroad, he hasn’t had the opportunity to update them. I feel very bad for this man, struggling to keep up his craft within a system that’s clearly falling apart.

Elżbieta tries one last time: are you sure you don’t want to talk to me? He responds “absolutely.” So she decides to leave. She gets to the car and Zofia meets her there. Zofia said she decided to wait for her just in case. Elżbieta says that he wanted to make her a coat. Zofia responds that she isn’t surprised, he’s been through a lot.

Wouldn’t it have been a better ending if she let him make a coat for her? People have different ways of expressing themselves, maybe at this point in his life, the tailor shows his affection and care through his work. If we go through life always expecting people to talk, we shut ourselves off from the myriad ways people can feel connected without saying a word.

Elżbieta says “what a strange country this is.” Zofia notes that she prayed yesterday, she says yes. In the final shot of the episode, we see the tailor peering at the two women out his front window, seeing Zofia put a hand to her shoulder, then Elżbieta clasping it.

Like in so many episodes of the Dekalog, hands convey what words cannot.