DEKALOG: FOUR
Screenplay by
TO BE OPENED AFTER MY DEATH
Anka! Stop it, damn you!
Stop it, you hear?
Easter Monday!
- No! - Open the door.
I'm in a hurry.
- You swear? - Open up, damn it!
- Easter Monday? - No!
My hair won't dry in time...
So there.
Hello? Speaking. Just a minute.
Dad, would you hang this up? I'll take it in my room.
Did he hang up?
Yes.
Dad, did you hang up?
He did.
- Well? - False alarm.
I got my period this morning, thank God.
Shall I come along to the airport?
- What? - Where's my damned ticket?
Scared?
Would you believe me if I said no? Well, then.
I don't like you going away.
Your hair's still wet.
- Bye. - Take care.
I forgot to pay the rent and phone.
Where are the bills?
Look in the chest of drawers.
Dad!
TO BE OPENED AFTER MY DEATH
- First name? - Anna.
- Age? - Twenty.
- Student? - S.D.A., third year.
Drama school. - I know.
My son wants to study there.
What did the entrance exams include?
Literature, prose, poetry, song.
Whose poetry did you recite?
Eliot, Herbert...
Eliot...
He hasn't got a chance.
You've having vision problems?
Yesterday I was watching a plane from a distance,
and all I saw was a blur.
And I can only make out bus numbers clearly
when they're very close.
Read, please.
F... A...
T... H...
E... R.
- You were guessing at the end? - Yes.
- You speak English. - Yes.
Why did you choose those letters?
I'm testing your IQ too.
My father was on that plane yesterday.
Have I done something wrong?
Something bad?
No. You're not the center of the universe, you know.
Are you upset?
I don't like my father being away.
If you're sad or scared...
I can stay here while he's gone.
FOR MY DAUGHTER ANNA
Well?
Who's next?
- I know it's gonna be me. - And me.
Let's go.
Closer.
"Good night...
No more merriment tonight.
Good night."
What a shrew! You love him, remember.
What?
You're acting like a sulking princess.
Concentrate.
Why would I love him?
I don't see the subtext here.
There's always a subtext!
You can love anyone. Everyone has some silly little thing.
But why do I love him?
- Think of something. - Like what?
Maybe that puppy-dog look.
If you say so.
Lie down on the table.
Don't be self-conscious. Say the lines.
- "Good night." - Good.
"No more merriment tonight.
May the angel of dreams enfold thee in his wings."
Don't be bashful.
"Good night...
and respite find from every tear.
Good night."
Stop smiling. Get closer.
"Good night.
Turn thy gaze to me once more.
Let me kiss thy cheek.
Good night."
You're not concentrating.
"Let me kiss thy cheek.
Good night.
Wouldst thou call thy servants?"
"Let me kiss thy breast."
"Good night. 'Tis fastened in my dress."
"With all of my 'good nights'...
I'll hinder thy sweet rest."
See? You know how to look at him.
Now you're finally concentrating.
Thanks. Let's take five.
Hi. Sorry I didn't call, but I was in the neighborhood.
Michał asked me to pick up some drawings.
- Oh, right. - They're waiting for me downstairs.
Great. Thanks.
Adam?
You've known my father a long time, haven't you?
- We were students together. - Did you know my mother?
Yes, but not very well.
- What was she like? - A lot like you.
- Physically? - That too...
but she had your sensitivity.
Could she have had some sort of secret?
No idea.
- Something she wanted me to know? - She'd have told you.
She was like you that way. - She died when I was five days old.
True.
She'd have written a letter or something.
Sorry, I gotta dash.
I'll drop by when Michał gets back.
Thanks.
Hi.
What are you doing here?
They're nice.
A light color.
- Anything wrong? - No.
- Something at school? - No.
Then what is it?
- "My darling daughter..." - What?
"My darling daughter...
I don't know what you'll look like when you read this.
I'm sure you're grown up and Michał is no longer alive.
Right now you're a tiny baby.
I've only seen you once.
They've stopped bringing you to me because I'm dying.
I have something important to tell you.
Michał is not your father.
It's not important who is.
It was a moment of foolishness that's caused much suffering.
I know Michał will love you as a father,
and I'm confident you'll be happy with him.
I imagine you reading this letter someday
in a place of your own.
You have dark hair, don't you?
You have slender fingers...
and a delicate neck...
just as I'd have wished. Mother."
Good afternoon.
Is Jarek home? - He's gone out.
But he'll be back. Come in.
Has Jarek said he'd like to marry me?
Only indirectly, but I could guess.
I can marry him right away.
- What about your father? - That doesn't matter.
He isn't my real father anyway.
I've been looking for you.
I forgot my keys again.
This is our floor.
I'm sorry.
Good evening.
Going down? - Yes.
You knew?
Good night.
Tell me.
I suspected.
- Sorry to bring you down here. - No, we're getting out here.
- It's the basement. - It's okay. Go on.
- You recognize your mother? - Yes.
One of these two could be your father.
What's this?
It was your mother's.
They gave it to me at the hospital.
How long have you known?
I was never entirely sure...
but I always suspected.
You lied to me.
It never mattered to me. You were always my daughter.
You should have told me.
I planned...
to give you the letter when you turned ten,
but it turned out you were still too small.
Then I planned to wait until you were 15...
but then it turned out you were too big.
So I just put it in that yellow envelope.
It was that goddamn simple, was it?
I didn't think it would change things between us anyway.
You must be lying.
You're lying.
Look.
There are two candles.
This one's mine...
and this one's yours.
Whoever's candle burns down first gets to ask a question, all right?
All right.
It was the draft.
Got a cigarette?
You won.
You get to ask me anything.
I'll give you a straight answer.
Why did I read the letter?
Because you wanted me to.
The first time I saw it
was by accident.
It fell out of your briefcase when we were moving.
I was 16.
Fifteen and a half.
Fine.
I put it back, but now I knew it existed.
At first it was all very exciting:
a secret to be revealed only after your death.
I noticed you always took it when you went away.
But not this time.
No.
You left it here on purpose.
So I took it.
I carried it around for three days.
After a week I went down to the river and opened it.
Well, that was certainly an exhaustive answer.
Did you ever read it?
No.
Actually, my answer wasn't exhaustive.
They always tell us at school, "Think why you say things.
What's your intention? What's the subtext?"
Want to know the subtext? - No.
The subtext is that for years I've felt
like I knew what that letter said.
When I had my first boyfriend,
I felt like I was being unfaithful to someone,
and I couldn't understand it.
It was you.
I keep looking for someone different than you.
But when a man touches me,
I think of your hands.
When I'm being close with someone else, I'm really with...
What should I call you now?
I don't know.
I'm Anka.
Ah, you're here!
Welcome back!
How was it? - Not bad.
I sent copies of the drawings, and they confirmed receipt.
Great.
Hi, Anka.
- Seems it was the draft. - Yeah, right.
Is this it?
Yeah, that's the stuff.
Yeah, identical. Thanks.
- Does it help? - Sure does. Anka, look.
After one month. Incredible, huh?
Feel.
Having a little vodka?
Yes. Anka...
How's school? When's graduation?
May.
- Any big dreams? - Excuse me.
I'll be going. You still have to unpack.
See you, and thanks.
Go join your friend.
- He left. - I know!
Then take a bus or a cab and go catch him!
You obviously don't want to talk to me!
I won't listen!
Leave me alone!
Who are you afraid of?
Me or yourself?
No need to be afraid.
I'm getting married.
Answer that.
It might be Krysia or Marta.
Or Jarek. Get it.
Hello?
I don't know.
No, I was sleeping.
Call me tomorrow, okay?
He doesn't know he's engaged, does he?
No, but I told his mother.
Aren't you afraid?
You want to talk?
Really?
You can run away...
or go off and get married.
It won't change a thing.
What I said before Adam got here was the truth.
In bed I've always felt like I was betraying someone.
Now I know who.
I was being unfaithful to you.
I never felt that.
Let's make a deal.
If you lie and I catch you, you admit it, okay?
Okay.
That was a lie... that you didn't feel that way.
You're right.
So you did?
Yes.
You live your own life.
You have complete freedom.
And I pretend it doesn't matter to me.
Even if you decide to marry Jarek,
I won't say no...
though I know you'd really like me to.
I have no right
to forbid you anything.
If I forbade you or forced you in any way...
it would mean jealousy even in my own eyes.
Not the protective jealousy a father feels for his daughter,
but the typical jealousy
a man feels about a woman, understand?
I didn't want it to ever be like that.
But it was.
I don't know what it is.
Three years ago...
when you caught me in bed with Marcin...
was that why you went away? - Yes.
I tried to justify it then too.
"No father likes it when his daughter starts sleeping with guys."
But I wasn't your daughter.
I don't know about that.
I've often thought your mother could have been mistaken.
Though they say a woman always knows.
She could have been wrong. - No, she couldn't.
A woman really does know these things.
How do you know?
I just do.
Have you been pregnant?
Yes.
When?
Last year.
You know...
the reason I would travel or stay out all night
and leave you here all alone was that I wanted
something irreversible to happen.
I thought it would be the first time you made love,
but it didn't happen.
Then I hoped you'd have a child... and I still do!
Understand?
That's why I didn't have it. You'd have given me that calm smile.
And I didn't tell you about it
so you couldn't say, "Tough luck, sweetie.
Scrape your insides out.
Fine with me."
Didn't it occur to you I didn't want the irreversible to happen?
Why do you want me to have a child?
So things will get resolved without you doing anything.
Like with that letter. "Not to be opened before my death."
I'm putting it back.
- It's addressed to you. - I don't want it.
I don't want it.
When I was little, you'd stroke my back when I'd cry.
Sometimes I'd cry on purpose...
so you'd reach under my pajamas and stroke my back.
It would make me shiver.
You never wanted me to grow up, did you?
You wanted me to stay a child.
Bikinis were forbidden even when my breasts started growing.
When I had my first period, you took me to the mountains
as if that would stop it.
You never got married to Marta or anyone else.
I was afraid of those women.
I needn't have been...
because you never got married.
You were waiting for me, weren't you?
Weren't you?
Yes.
It had to be.
I'm not your daughter.
And I'm grown up now.
You want to touch me?
Do you?
All right.
Then answer one question.
Just one.
Why did you want me to read that letter?
I wanted the impossible.
You didn't know it was impossible.
No, I didn't.
That's why I struck you for the first time ever at the airport today.
Because you read the letter.
Because I wanted you to read it.
Because of your mother.
Because she wrote you things she never told me.
Because I love you...
and you're not my daughter.
Because everything could have been so different.
And because of those days that will never come back.
The times you'd stroke my back when I was crying.
Candy king...
Gingerbread page...
Marzipan princess...
Dad?
Dad!
Daddy!
I lied to you. I never opened the letter.
Dad...
what I told you at the airport, the letter you read... I wrote it myself.
I copied Mother's handwriting from the envelope. I forged it.
What does Mother's letter say?
I don't know.
Where were you going?
To get milk.
I know what we should do with the letter.
This is the real one.
Will you help me?
Yes.
"My darling daughter...
I have something important to..."
Show? No, tell.
"I have something important to tell you.
Michał...
Michał is not..."
The rest is burned.
Directed by
Cinematography by
Produced by
Music by
Art Direction by
Sound by
Edited by
Digital Restoration by