A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES
[gate creaks]
[Effy] "I shall shake the foundation of your dominion."
- Did you like it? - [Skowron] Yeah. It was cool.
- Do you know you just broke the law? - What do you mean?
Mickiewicz was writing about the Russian Empire but it sums up our entire history.
Now more than ever.
That's why the Party banned it.
[screeching tires]
[tense music]
- I have to go. - What's wrong?
- I'll explain one day. - Effy!
[Skowron] Effy!
Effy!
[screeching tires]
[siren]
[worried voices]
And you? Want to miss all the fun?
I didn't know... I came here to pray.
Came here to pray? My friend wants to pray. For whom?
I thought so.
[man] We're people! You have no right to treat us this way!
- [thumping] - [groaning]
[heavy thud]
[pulsing music]
[wind whistles]
- Effy? - We need help.
What happened?
Take her upstairs!
- [nurse] You're not welcome here. - [Effy] We're not welcome anywhere.
Call Adrian.
Lay her down.
[Oliwka] Maciej...
- [Maciej] You'll be fine. - Did you get him?
Move.
- Move! - You messed him up good.
- Don't let it go to waste! - Leave!
Cut it open.
- Spare me the lecture. - Maciej!
[coughing]
[pulsing music]
[heartbeat]
[officer] "Today is the fated hour. Today I will strain my soul's power."
What do those words mean to you?
Nothing.
"Now my spirit is one with my homeland.
My body has swallowed her soul. Me and my homeland are one."
Powerful words.
They must stir some emotion.
I have rights.
You must be mistaking us for the Milicja.
[man #1] He participated in an illegal staging of Dziady by Mickiewicz.
[Lis] I know the play.
I banned it.
- Who was he with? - [man #2] Says he was alone.
If he's lying, his companion might have left or escaped before we came.
[Lis] Did you make an arrest report?
[man #1] We contacted you the minute we learned who he was, Minister.
[Lis] Yet you proceeded with the interrogation?
[man #1] We contacted you out of courtesy.
[man #1] He must still be dealt with. Subversive thought must not be allowed.
Are you lecturing me?
[man #2] We report to the Minister of State Security, not to you.
Our duty is to the state.
[Lis] Your duty is what I say it is.
If he poses a threat to the state, we must act.
[Lis] I decide what poses a threat to the state...
Group Commander.
[Lis] Release him immediately.
And I was never here.
[soft voices]
No news yet.
What is this place?
They're medical students. It's a place for illegals, opposition...
People outside the system,
who don't want to or can't be in the DNA base.
- The rejects. - Like us.
Not exactly.
Fuck, Effy. This place isn't for you.
Don't bring these people into your shitstorm.
I won't let her die when she did something you had no guts for.
- You selfish little bitch. - We don't abandon our people.
Risking the lives of civilians?
Your presence here puts these medics in danger.
Only you don't give a fuck. You want to see the world burn.
Your cowardice got us here. Their blood is on your hands, too.
There's only one murderer among us.
She's dead.
[somber music]
- Hello. - Hi.
FEBRUARY 1983
- [phones ringing] - [voices in next room]
What?
[eerie music]
Hello, Maja.
Good morning.
For the tournament. I'm getting everything ready.
Good thinking.
GENERAL STAFF HEADQUARTERS
[pulsing music]
[birds tweeting]
We never received what you were trying to pass to us.
The courier was murdered right after you met.
Who are you?
- Keep running. Too many eyes. - Who are you?
You want to end up like him?
- Do you know who did it? - No.
Whoever it was, they must have someone here.
- Our network's shot. They sent me. - Get me out.
- Only when we get the info. - They must know it's me.
Is the sale real?
Is it?
Yes.
When's the transfer?
- Soon. - We need the date and location.
- Only once you get me out. - There's no time.
Now.
Something bigger is happening.
I need to speak to someone who can give me guarantees.
What do you mean, bigger?
Get me out of here first.
Then get ready.
US AIR AND LAND FORCES ATTACK IRAQ
[doorbell]
Fuck.
Sorry to intrude. Hello.
- [Skowron] Hello. - [Lis] Relax. Karolina is fine.
I thought that maybe you'd like to visit the Ministry with me today.
I have classes today.
Enough of university. Time to see the real world.
Of course.
MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY
Hello.
Junior BBI Inspector Suchoparski. I need your help.
You know the rules.
Yes, of course.
- [beeping] - [computer whirrs]
CLEARANCE LEVEL: 8
How can I help, Junior Inspector?
I need an adoptions register from the 1980s.
The 1980s? That could be tricky.
OK, I'll start with names. Fiolek, Maciej.
Let me see.
You're not being digitized yet?
And you're just a junior inspector?
No card. It's being digitized.
OK, let's try Modzelewski, Jonasz.
It's being digitized.
- Kras, Benjamin? - It's being digitized.
You could at least check.
I don't think you get it, Junior Inspector Suchoparski.
- They took all the adoption cards. - Who? Who took them?
Do you think I ask?
Then what's the use of you sitting here all day?
Come back when you're a real cop.
I see.
- Goodbye. - Goodbye.
[eerie music]
ATTEMPTED ACCESS: FIOLEK MACIEJ
ATTEMPTED ACCESS: MODZELEWSKI JONASZ
ATTEMPTED ACCESS: KRAS BENJAMIN
REQUEST: SUCHOPARSKI JAKUB BBI CLEARANCE LEVEL: 8
REDIRECTED: SECURITY BUREAU ALPHA PRIORITY
- [car door slams] - [engine starts]
OK, so I'll be a real cop.
[ominous music]
This is private property.
I'm from BBI. Nothing's private.
You're not authorized to enter. Please leave.
Alright, call the Eastern District Chief, Stanisław Górski.
Authorizations are issued solely by the Minister.
Which Minister?
Listen, what's your ID number?
My bad.
[deep rumbling]
[Lis] Good morning.
Good morning.
- [Traszka beeping] - Sorry.
Last week we had a visit by the CEO of an American company manufacturing PCs.
He wants to license Traszka's touchscreen technology from us.
A very ambitious guy.
I'm getting ahead of myself.
The USSR is our chief trading partner but its economy is failing.
That's why we must seek new markets in Asia and in the West.
Ten years ago it was unthinkable, but our quality of life keeps improving.
To guarantee this, we need economic growth.
New technologies help.
That's our future.
I brought you here out of sheer selfishness.
I'd like you to consider working at the Ministry.
I don't want to complicate things for you and Karolina.
She'll probably get angry that I've offered you this at all.
You can say something now.
I've never considered working at the Ministry.
- I need to think. - You find politics repellent?
No, no.
You picture a life spent plotting and manipulating in a stuffy room?
It's not like that anymore. We're the most innovative Ministry in the country.
Its driving force.
We have a chance...
to bury the demons of the past.
That is what the people here do.
Sit.
You know, I'm saying this...
because I see you as family.
You can trust me, sir.
Tomorrow I'm having the American delegation over. Including the Ambassador.
I would like you...
to be there.
Of course.
Then the world is your oyster, Kajetan Skowron.
[Maciej] I'd like to take her home.
[Effy] I thought we were her home.
[Maciej] No.
She had memories from before they took her away.
Told me about her parents.
She remembered blue printing ink that would never wash off.
Its smell.
A room full of machines that she was forbidden to enter.
Her father getting angry when she drew on the paper feeder.
He said that paper is everything.
That it will change the world.
That's all she remembered.
She never told me.
So you wouldn't see it as a weakness.
I promised to protect her.
I'd like to at least take her home.
Then I'll take care of the bastard who did this.
Fiolek, Kras, Modzelewski, Ziółek, all gone.
They took the files away to burn them.
Can you stop?
- Where was this? - [Suchoparski] Somewhere in Targówek.
A big building, lots of guards.
Probably belongs to a ministry. They had no insignia.
They were bringing Vietnamese workers in.
Another of Uncle's businesses.
Can you get in?
Whatever was in these files, they didn't want us or anyone else to see it.
What did you learn?
[Górski] A single shot in the mouth.
SB?
If it was them, we would have never found the body.
And this?
Look familiar?
Maciej Fiolek.
None other.
[Suchoparski] Guys, maybe you have this magic cop gene
that I am missing, but someone tell me what the fuck is going on here.
[Janów] I assume it's my turn, now.
This is a picture from Władysław Lis's wedding in 1982.
Five years ago, I investigated a triple homicide in the Fiolek family.
This is Justyna Fiolek.
Her son was assumed dead but we never found his body.
Why? Because he killed his adoptive parents.
This is him.
Janusz Żurawski, the judge presiding over the case.
He was murdered by his former student, Piotr Wybraniec.
Your dead guy.
Piotr Wybraniec was killed by Maciej Fiolek.
Cleaning up a mess.
All the other murders were carefully planned and organized.
A hit-and-run seems accidental. Too dramatic.
I'll bet that Wybraniec wasn't just his student.
Effy is just as ruthless as the SB.
Oskar Modzelewski dies in a plane crash with his adopted son Jonasz.
Angelika Torzecka dies in an explosion. Her son has disappeared.
- And the photo? - Internal source.
How internal?
OK.
That leaves...
this is Kazimierz Świętobór, and this is Cardinal Adamus.
And the new Minister of State Security, Mikołaj Trojan.
Gentlemen...
in the early 1980s I was stationed in East Berlin
for some regular training, learning management techniques from the Stasi.
I remember a colonel from East Germany
who talked about a recent military coup in Argentina,
about how gradually, over a few years,
democratic opposition members would "disappear."
I had the impression that he admired the efficiency.
But what I remembered best was what he said later.
You see, army chiefs liquidated the parents
and then placed their children with military families, loyal to the regime.
They changed their names, stories,
erased memories of their past and origin.
Jesus Christ.
I remembered this.
An act of compassion changed into an act of total domination.
So, not only do we kill you, but we erase all memory of you.
The kids are taking revenge for what the Party did to their parents.
[vehicle engine purrs]
Gentlemen...
look what's happening downstairs.
[vehicle accelerating]
[Górski] What the fuck is this?
Run. I'll buy you a few minutes.
Go with him.
Secure all exits. Lock down every floor.
[tense music]
[Górski] What's going on?
Orders of the Minister of State Security.
This is a civil body.
Chief, all citizens are subject to the national security laws. Even the Milicja.
You have no authority here.
Would you like me to test that?
If anyone tries to run, shoot.
Your command is terminated.
You stay, sir.
Junior Inspector Suchoparski. Great, I don't have to look.
Your gun.
It is crucial to take over their arsenal in the first few minutes.
Without weapons, the SB are just shitheads in uniforms.
We'll keep them in the barracks in Wilanów until they're reeducated.
[knocking]
And the Party?
Lis and the other ministers will be at a party retreat in Krynica Morska.
Forty kilometers from Air Base 22.
If they try to fly back to Warsaw or leave the country,
we'll shoot them from the sky.
Has Iran complied?
Three LNG tankers have already left the Persian Gulf.
Our fleet will escort them via the channel to the port in Świnoujście.
NATO has been informed of our annual Blue Water military exercises.
Our strategic petrol reserves stand at 60 million barrels.
With the petrol promised by Iran
we'll survive, even if the Soviets cut us off.
If they dare.
When will we be ready to attack?
Following your order, deployment of our strategic forces will take 72 hours.
- Operation codename? - Northern Lion, General.
At your command.
Would anyone like to inform the Americans?
[ominous music]
Krzysiek! Open this.
[woman] You have no appointment, Inspector.
Please tell Uncle that the SB has raided the Eastern Precinct.
They could be here any moment. Understood?
Follow me, Inspector.
[Janów] You say this country has lost its soul?
Maybe that's why you don't hear any "cry for freedom".
Because you're erasing history.
You wonder why people won't stand up to the Party
while you'll do anything they ask if it pays, Uncle.
You're wrong about one thing. It's not the Party.
Oh? Then who?
Them?
- You don't see the big picture. - Because you're burning it.
Has you mother seen the report?
How is that relevant?
I'm paid to digitize the past.
This way, I get access to everything.
Including your report.
Why are they doing it now?
They're scared that one day there will be a reckoning.
By whom? God?
Someone much more important.
I want everything on the adopted orphans.
[woman] Am I needed?
[door clangs open]
[door clangs shut]
[Zatoń] What do you want?
Trojan.
They'll change the procedures. You won't get him.
But we have you.
You're alive because you have intel on the SB.
If you don't prove useful,
then...
He loved her.
I need Trojan's weak spot.
And then what? You'll just murder him?
No plan, huh?
This Light Brigade is just about your personal vendetta.
What did you promise them?
That this is all for a reason?
That you'll be free?
You know that there's no chance.
Even if you murder everyone.
The state is a machine.
You won't stop it by murdering those who pull the strings.
You're one of us.
[door slams]
FEBRUARY 1983
[eerie music]
Wiktor.
[faucet running]
Jesus, Wiktor.
[he groans]
The worst parts were when nothing happened.
It was terrifying.
I was stuck with some men in a dark room
remembering all the horrible prison stories I had ever heard.
Imagining things...
Sounds, voices...
I was sure they were the ghosts of those who came before me.
I was terrified that I was just one man
out of thousands who ended up in there.
That if I died there,
nobody would remember or even carve my name on a tombstone.
They would just put me in an unmarked grave in some field.
That was when I realized...
that I must protect you and Kajtek first.
That I'll do anything to keep you safe.
There are others, right?
Better, stronger men.
Let them fight.
Those are for Ofelia?
Some of them.
If they match the profile of the people she seeks.
The ones who were old enough to remember their real parents,
before being taken in by powerful people.
Did you find anything on Kajetan Skowron?
He would have been five or six in 1983.
We have a file on Maja and Wiktor Skowron.
May I see it?
[Uncle] You never answered my question. Has your mother seen the report?
Not yet.
She has a right to know.
You amaze me.
I have a mother, too.
"Arrested in December 1982
on the charge of subversion."
Then released.
Last entry on 20 April 1983.
- After the bombings. - And their deaths?
Wait.
Hoa Lo.
[in Vietnamese] Hoa Lo?
[in Vietnamese] He died in Hoa Lo prison in 1997.
What are you saying?
[in Polish] He died in a prison camp in Vietnam in 1997.
This must be a mistake.
Here's a confirmation sent to the Polish authorities.
DEATH CERTIFICATE, 18 JANUARY 1997
Are you sure it's her?
Ofelia?
Yes.
Our shameful Emilia Plater.
Send this to every field officer and agent. Priority Alpha.
Yes, Commander.
And this guy, this inspector...
Anatol Janów.
Do you trust him?
Like I trust myself.
You're taking a risk, judging by his file.
He's always served the country faithfully.
Perhaps too brazenly sometimes.
And Suchoparski and Pająk?
I needed a small team
so that the operation remained secret even from the SB.
You weren't the only one with Milicja informants.
We have someone in the Light Brigade...
Chief.
Like last time.
Łukasz Ziółek.
She turned him.
He was giving her information on the SB and the Ministry.
He was the one who knew that the Minister would be on the plane.
Who else did you have in the Brigade?
His son, Jonasz?
Filip Torzecki maybe?
They were all "inside".
You know my story. I was a devoted soldier.
I fought enemies of the state while you were at the tailors.
You think you can bring order through fear?
It's not fear...
it's trust...
that keeps citizens in check.
Every day a million people in my district place their trust in me
while you parade around in your shiny boots
and jerk each other off in this bunker.
You know how I'll destroy them?
With trust.
My man has gained it, and yours, whoever he is,
is wondering at this very moment whether to believe all the stories you fed him.
Let me go and we'll destroy them together.
[ominous music]
[birds tweeting]
[knocking]
Full profiles on the Americans.
And the Kashubian girl?
Nothing noteworthy.
I'd like to speak to her.
Yes, sir.
[relaxing classical music plays]
[In English] Excuse me.
[Skowron] Beautiful.
[she laughs]
Where have you been?
You're so comfortable among them.
Americans are not that scary.
You'll have to teach me one day.
What do you think they're talking about?
You know.
What? No.
You had this silent look. I've seen it all my life.
In politician lingo it means "yes."
Your father took me to the Ministry yesterday.
Oh?
He wanted to discuss my plans for when I finish university.
Uh-huh.
I haven't agreed to anything yet.
Just don't turn into him.
We'll discuss this later. I shouldn't keep the guests waiting.
Thank you.
Come on.
[horse snorts]
Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid, let's go.
Come on.
[officer] General.
[whistles]
Right.
[in English] Don't worry. This is nothing alarming.
I enjoyed our talk the other day.
I rarely have the opportunity to hear an unvarnished opinion.
- These are beautiful stables. - Yes.
Our country has always excelled at cavalry.
The Uhlans, the Hussars before them...
They were the most feared fighting force in all of Europe.
That is, unless you're sitting in a tank.
American bourbon.
A gift from General Hunter.
I like your General Hunter. A graduate of West Point.
West Point was built by a Pole. Tadeusz Kosciuszko.
Also a Colonel in your Continental Army
under George Washington. A hero of your Revolution.
I didn't know that.
His revolutionary zeal was not rewarded by the Tsar
when he returned here.
One country's revolutionary is another country's terrorist.
I guess some future historians could consider us revolutionaries.
You're not so certain?
History has a strange way of judging those who make it.
Of course, you don't think of that at the time.
I believe that was the case with us. We just wanted to change the world.
And did you?
For a time.
You remind me of one of them.
Another engineer about the same age as you are now.
These weapons are as much hers as they are mine.
Then she would be proud of this moment.
I don't know. We developed these weapons for a strategic purpose
which has long been achieved.
Since then, they came to symbolize our sovereignty.
The power of a nation is not in the strength of its weapons
but in the soul of its people.
Only powerful nations can say that.
[whistles]
Hey, gorgeous.
Hey.
[loud whinnying]
[pulsing music]
[in Polish] I have it.
I'm ready.
Forty-eight hours.
God, the Americans will bore us to death.
One kept showing me pictures from his daughter's wedding.
- Do you have any pictures? - From the wedding?
Of course.
Let's see them.
- Would you like to? - Sure.
Alright.
Wedding photos? Really?
How much did you drink?
Here we are.
Twenty years ago. We were so young.
Władysław took most of them.
He bought this ultra-modern camera
in America, right after university.
He liked to show it off.
[Skowron] Who's that?
Justyna Fiolek. She was a physicist working for the army.
One of the greatest minds in this country. She would have won the Nobel Prize if...
If...?
If not for an awful tragedy. She and her whole family were murdered.
And him?
[Mrs. Lis] Kazik Świętobór, so handsome in his uniform.
Dad became a Central Committee member then.
The talks took all weekend.
I wasn't very happy about it but I had other, more important things on my mind.
Yes, our little baby just before she was born.
- Where was this? - On Tałty lake, in Masuria.
It's beautiful. You should go there one day.
Hello. A parcel from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
- Here. - These are my Irish. Sorry.
- Thanks very much. - Thank you.
We both know that the Irish didn't qualify.
What are you talking about?
[eerie music]
DECISION
[train rumbling past]
[man, in English] My apologies for the location.
There seem to be more prying eyes every day.
We should walk.
You were right. They all look like athletes.
I had many willing volunteers to choose from.
Your struggles have not gone unnoticed in the West.
Our charity receives offers of support from all over Europe.
It sometimes feels that we're all alone.
There is one more thing I must ask of you.
The man who organized the travel into the country.
Well, I'm afraid I can no longer fully trust him.
Not to worry, not to worry. We're completely safe.
I just can't risk any more mix-ups.
I need someone on this side to assist them when they cross over into Poland.
Just to...
get them to the proper trains and proper cities.
You're the one person I can fully trust to do this.
What can I do?
[ominous music]
What they did to your parents, they also did to mine.
And many others.
What happened to yours?
The SB had a mole on the inside.
One day they burst into my home and arrested everybody.
I was there. I remember how they pried me away from my mother. And took me away.
Years later, I found out that my parents had been shot
along with a dozen or so other "enemies of the state."
No trial, nothing. Just killed by the SB.
- Not by me. - It doesn't matter.
You do the same thing now.
I don't blame them. They had orders.
But I do blame the fucker who betrayed my parents.
[typewriter clacking]
[doorbell]
Hi.
You made it out!
[Effy yells]
Shush, princess. You know we don't shout here.
Hey.
You're not supposed to shout.
We're keeping quiet, remember?
Do you remember or not? Huh?
[pulsing music]