War Games, one of the most eagerly awaited documentary films ever made in Poland, is shown this week at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

The most prestigious event of its kind in Australia will be screening the Polish film, directed by Dariusz Jablonski, also the film's producer.

It tells the story of Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski, who passed top secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA between 1971 and 1981, including plans for a military onslaught on the West and for the imposition of martial law in Poland to crush the Solidarity movement. Shortly after the declaration of martial law in December 1981, Kuklinski was extracted from Poland by the CIA, along with his family. In 1984, a military court in Warsaw sentenced him to death. The sentence was annulled after the fall of communism. Kuklinski died  in Florida in 2004.

The film includes interviews with high-ranking CIA generals, former US presidential security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Polish president Lech Walesa, Polish generals Jaruzelski and Kiszczak, commander of Warsaw Pact forces Soviet Marshal Kulikov, Kuklinski’s co-workers and friends, and his widow. Kuklinski himself agreed to be interviewed for the film but he died several days before the interview was due to take place. (mk/mmj)

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