Not only is a previous episode directly referenced, but the entire film is about the danger of applying intellectual analysis to ethical situations. Doing so, Decalogue VIII suggests, often denies the basic humanity involved.
In this gripping dramatic treatment of "Thou shalt not bear false witness" Krzysztof Kieslowski examines the impact our words and deeds have upon others.
Part 8 is a story that talks its way through a confrontation between an American translator of Polish writing and an elderly ethics professor with whom she shared a life-threatening moral dilemma during World War II.
