The Ten Commandments

This is war. Church services are held on both sides of the trenches, prayers are said, and hymns are sung to ensure divine assistance for one’s own – and, of course, just – cause. And at the same time, everyone fights with all they've got for survival and their own advantage. Using the siege of Leningrad by German troops as backdrop, Feridun Zaimoglu and Günter Senkel raise the question of how significant fundamental moral and Christian axioms are in times of hunger and violence. What meaning can commandments like “Thou shalt not kill”, “Thou shalt not commit adultery”, or “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's possessions” still have when everything around you falls apart? Switching between the Russian and the German perspective, between fighters and those who are back at home, Zaimoglu and Senkel compose an impressive and dark sequence of scenes where in the midst of all that cruelty, selfishness, and indifference just every now and then a spark of caring and human kindness can be found.