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All three films end with the main character in close-up, icon-like, weeping for the first time in the story. Tears of glycerin, perhaps, but if you have allowed yourself to create the film with Kieslowski, tears that are more real than those in many documentaries.

Kieslowski retired suddenly after Red's release, to soon after succumb to heart disease, yet his legacy continues: Piesewicz has continued to work on their final trilogy, the three films which were to be called Heaven, Purgatory and Hell; two of the three have been made (Heaven and Hell). Since other directors helmed these films, how much of Kieslowski is in them is hard to say.

Another trilogy was hinted at, titled Faith, Hope and Love. It is unclear if Piesiewicz's film called Hope is the same story he thought of with Kieslowski; unlike their other posthumous releases, Kieslowski does not have screenwriting credit. We may never know what that final trilogy would have been like, a mystery Kieslowski himself would have relished.

Kieslowski said shortly before his death, "The world is not only bright lights, this hectic pace, the Coca-Cola with a straw, the new car. … Another truth exists … a hereafter? Yes, surely. Good or bad, I don't know, but … something else."

, an occasional feature at Christianity Today Movies, highlights directors who adhere to the Christian faith—sometimes strongly, sometimes loosely, and sometimes somewhere in between. This series will include everyone from biblically-minded evangelicals to directors who may only have a "church background" and perhaps a lapsed faith … but their films are clearly informed by their spiritual history.

© Eric David 2006, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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The CT Review: The Ten Commandments Become Flesh	Printer view
A Polish director prods European and American audiences to consider God's timeless standards.

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Out of the Darkness	Printer view
Entering the world of Krzysztof Kieslowski.