Doppelgänger. The Double (Doppelgänger. Sobwtór)

Hans (Jakub Gierszal) meets his uncle Helmut (Joachim Raaf) in Strasbourg 1977. It’s a family reunion with Hans freed by the Polish communist authorities having been left as an orphan by his German mother when he was born after an affair with a Soviet officer. His German/Russian heritage and her dalliance making them outcasts in Polish society.

Welcomed into the household Hans is reunited with his mother and gets a job with French immigration all the while gradually working his way into western society.

Parallel to this is Jan (Tomasz Schuchdart) in Poland who sets about trying to find his birth mother. A seemingly simple exercise is complicated by Polish Communist bureaucracy, missing papers and a growing sense of vulnerability as requests for a passport are refused together with uncomfortable comments about loyalty to the state.

It doesn’t take too long to work out what is going on here and in some respects that isn’t the most interesting aspect of the film.

As Hans integrates into the family and starts an affair with ‘cousin’ Nina (Emily Kusche) he begins starts to question himself, motives and ideology. With Jan meanwhile faces a terrible realisation that he finds almost impossible to live with, agitated by the social upheaval happening all around him.

The film is intricately plotted with some excellent performances. Within that structure director Jan Holoubek, co-writer with Andrzej Golda examine the communist system at the time and the collaboration between those states under the Soviet yoke. While in the background the early signs of cracks in the Polish communist system with the creation of the Solidarity union at the Gdansk shipyard. It's both fascinating and horrifying.

Bond gets a mention as an example of western decadence but its useful too. It contrasts those hyper-fictional adventures with the nitty gritty of what I'll presume is more genuine spy work. Here it’s grey weather and suits, boredom, drop offs, handlers and intrigue. There’s nothing glamourous here; its grubby and for some, deadly.

Doppelganger. The Double will be screened on 9 March at the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival 2024 which takes place in venues across London 6 - 28 March 2024.

For further information and tickets visit kinoteka.org.uk