03/10/2014 - VUE Movie is releasing a thriller by Patryk Vega that delves deep into the shady areas of criminality, politics, business and the media

Today marks director Patryk Vega's return to Polish cinemas after having obtained wide-spread celebrity status in his home country thanks to the TV series Pitbull (2005-2007). After two more subdued films (Ciacho and Last Minute), the filmmaker is re-emerging on the scene with a confrontational feature that is already garnering him a lot of attention: Secret Wars (Służby specjalne). The film stars Olga Boladz, Andrzej Grabowski, Agata Kulesza, Eryk Lubos, Wojciech Zielinski, Janusz Chabior, Kamilla Baar, Jan Frycz and Wojciech Machnicki. 

In this political thriller, the director presents his own interpretation of contemporary Polish history. Just as Wojciech Smarzowski exposed the shady parts of police work in Traffic Department [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Wojtek Smarzowski
film profile], Vega invades the private and day-to-day lives of three army officers in order to decipher the minds and mental functioning of secret agents working in the most dangerous areas: the world of crime and the rogue sides of politics, business and the media. “My films are realist documents of mankind’s most sombre side,” the director emphasised. And indeed, his film is not a work of fiction: “In principle, not a single scene has been invented, and the dialogue has all been drawn directly from real life.” It is an uncompromising exploration that undoubtedly makes it one of Polish cinema’s most remarkable socio-political works of the last few years.

Produced by Ent One, Secret Wars has been co-produced by Add Sum, Aeroplan and Octocam Servimedia. Shot in Iraq, Poland, Italy and Lithuania by director of photography Miroslaw Brozek, the film is distributed by VUE Movie.

(Translated from French)