[8] The series was conceived when screenwriter Krzysztof Piesiewicz, who had seen a 15th-century artwork illustrating the Commandments in scenes from that time period, suggested the idea of a modern equivalent.

Filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski was interested in the philosophical challenge, and also wanted to use the series as a portrait of the hardships of Polish society, while deliberately avoiding the political issues he had depicted in earlier films.

Typically for Kieślowski, the tone of most of the films is melancholic, except for the final one, which is a black comedy, featuring two of the same actors, Jerzy Stuhr and Zbigniew Zamachowski, as in Three Colors: White.

[2] The themes can be interpreted in many different ways; however, each film has its own literality:[11] A nameless character played by Polish actor Artur Barciś appears in all but episodes 7 and 10.

Milk is a recurring element in the following 7 episodes: Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 100 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

[22] In a 2025 Criterion Closet Video,[23] Director Brady Corbet called The Decalogue "[M]aybe the greatest achievement in the history of cinema."