“Doppelganger. Doppelganger” is based on real events. This is a story about spies, but about different ones than always

The cinematography, set design and costumes make a great impression in “Doppelgangra” – their creators (Bartłomiej Kaczmarek, Marek Warszewski, Weronika Orlińska) were awarded during the Polish Feature Film Festival in Gdynia, which ended in September. Holoubek also received the award for directing, Tomasz Schuchardt for supporting actor, and the Radio Gdańsk Award for sound effects went to Kacper Habisiak, Marcin Kasiński, Przemysław Kamieński and Filip Krzemień. The creators wanted to reflect the atmosphere of half a century ago on many levels. – This film was a wonderful journey back to the 1970s, also in the way it was told. We decided to tell this film with the means that were used back then – the director said in one of the interviews. They were inspired by history.

“Doppelganger. Doppelganger” is not only a spy thriller

“Doppelganger. Doppelganger” is a spy story and a psychological drama whose heroes are two men. One of them works for the Polish People’s Republic intelligence services, the other is not interested in politics, but politics will be interested in him.

– Generally, there are two types of spies. Some simply operate under their own names, working in embassies, e.g. as consuls. The Doppelgänger method is much rarer and riskier. These are people who work undercover, with changed, usually stolen personal details – they blend into society. During the Iron Curtain, “secondaries” existed on both sides and would have been exposed to serious consequences if caught, including death sentences, says director Jan Holoubek.

Doppelganger. Double Next Film promotional materials

Such a character with a life that is not his own is Hans (Jakub Gierszał), who goes to Strasbourg and during this mission he will have to ask himself some really important questions. His espionage activities will be hindered by… life. However, it is not easy to say to yourself: it’s over and get out of the services. At the same time, in the People’s Republic of Poland there lives Jan Bitner, who is a non-drinking alcoholic who works at the Gdańsk Shipyard. And although theoretically she has nothing in common with Hans, their fates are dramatically intertwined.

“Secondaries” have been operating in the services for a century

We do not know whose exact story was told in the script by Andrzej Gołda in cooperation with Holoubek. The fact is, however, that in the history of espionage, doppelgängers have and do happen. The Soviets were the first to start operating in this way in the 1920s.

In 1961, the British secret services arrested Canadian Gordon Lonsdale, and when they contacted the man’s relatives, they learned that he had been dead for many years – he had died while still a child. The KGB officer was caught largely thanks to the cooperation with the Americans of another spy – the Pole Michał Goleniewski, and the tracking of yet another agent: Harry Houghton, who cooperated with the USSR.

It turned out that Gordon Lonsdale was not a Canadian businessman who came to Great Britain, but his name was Konon Mołody. As a young boy, he left the USSR with his aunt and finished school in California. Arrested in 1961, he did not want to cross over, and three years later he was exchanged for Greville Wynne, caught by the Soviet services and collaborating with the British. He died six years later at the age of 48, which for many people was a signal that although he was treated as a hero in the Soviet Union, someone could actually get rid of him.

One of such spies who assumed the identity of another person was Jerzy Kaczmarek, who was sent from the Polish People’s Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1970s. “On the papers” of a living person, he found a job at the office for displaced persons. He had access to documents regarding people who were in Germany and came, for example, from the communist bloc countries. His father worked in the Security Service, he himself studied German and was recruited by the services in 1977. As Janusz Arnold, he passed on information obtained from the office for several years – he operated in Bremen in 1978-1985.

“Seconds” did not disappear after the demolition of the Berlin Wall, although in times when we can identify someone’s identity much more easily, it is more difficult and less common to apply this scheme. In 2010, the FBI dismantled a network of Russian spies who were using the identities of deceased Canadian children. Last year, the media reported, for example, about an official of the capital city hall – Tomasz L., who for five years allegedly stole and transferred personal data to Russians in order to enable them to create identities for their officers and send further doppelgangers to carry out operations.

We would like to thank the distributor of the film Next Film for the opportunity to produce material about the film Doppelganger.