Directed by: Jan Holoubek
Starring: Jakub Gierszał, Tomasz Schuchardt, Emily Kusche, Wiktoria Gorodeckaja
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Doubles of a living person as a cinematic theme have seldom appeared on the big screen in Poland. And when that was the case it was treated as an ethereal bond between 2 individuals — The Double Life of Veronique (1991), a late cinematic showpiece directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, portrays two characters played by Irène Jacob who are emotionally connected despite living in different countries.
More recently, in Doppelgänger. Sobowtór (Doppelgänger. The Double, 2023) cinematographer-turn-director Jan Holoubek drew inspiration from the real life of cold war spy from Communist Poland. Jerzy Kaczmarek was a wtórnik (“duplicate” in Polish) that stole the identity of a compatriot in the late 1970s and pretended to be the lost son of a German woman that relocated to Western Europe after WWII.
In Holoubek’s effort the character of Hans Steiner (Jakub Gierszał) is largely based on Agent Kaczmarek who become a successful desk-jockey in Germany, before he was unmasked. Jan Bitner (Tomasz Schuchardt) instead dwells on the East side of the curtain. He cannot reunite with his real mother after his name is robbed by the then Security Service in Poland (SB) and reassigned to Hans.
As a spy movie Doppelgänger. The Double displays a remarkable historical accuracy. It even reenacts the spectacular cold war spy swap in Berlin on the Glienicke Bridge from February 1986. Visually all is enhanced by the yellowish nicotine-like patina that covers Bartlomiej Kaczmarek’s slick cinematography (the same last name with the Communist mole is just a coincidence). Through the film the viewers are catapulted in a maze of offices where smoking was still allowed.
Doppelgänger. The Double is not a mere biopic of Agent Kaczmarek. It equally focuses on Bitner’s own drama when he eventually understands the reason why he is not allowed to look for his biological mother on the West side of the curtain. Kaczmarek’s return to less adventurous life, is depicted like a burden for the protagonist in the Hollywood-esque ending.
The Doppelgänger. The Double is a topflight euro spy thriller that deserves to be in the same tier of Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others (2006). Holoubek’s film opened the 48th Polish Film Festival in Gdynia.
Film Reviewed by Giuseppe Sedia
Published by Kino Mania on October 26, 2023