Krystyna Skarbek lived a life so extraordinary that it is now being retold in a new feature film. The Polish woman who became a heroine of Churchill’s wartime spy network fought the Germans with nerves of steel, seduced some of the most powerful men of her time, and ultimately met a tragic, bloody end. The Sun tells the story of a famous Polish-British spy.
“The makers of a new film about Britain’s greatest female spy have been caught up in Russia’s war against the West, while telling the extraordinary story of Krystyna Skarbek,” The Sun starts its article by presenting the contemporary context of the movie.
The aristocratic Polish beauty, who became Churchill’s favourite agent, was fearless in her missions, notorious for her bed-hopping romances, and is now remembered as the real woman who inspired Ian Fleming’s Bond girls.
Born into Polish high society, Skarbek volunteered for Britain’s Special Operations Executive at the outbreak of the Second World War. Fluent in several languages and possessing an instinct for danger, she quickly became one of the most valuable agents operating behind enemy lines.
The article retells the most important operations performed by Krystyna Skarbek across Europe, including sabotage, using guerrilla tactics and parachuting.
When she was operating in German-occupied Poland, to work with the resistance, she recruited partisans, blew up bridges and trains, and smuggled intelligence back to Britain.
Skarbek was also arrested by the Gestapo and was able to escape further torture: she bit her tongue until blood poured out, pretending to have tuberculosis. Her captors released her rather than risk infection. During a mission in Hungary, Skarbek freed fellow SOE agents, including her partner Andrzej Kowerski, by bluffing that she was Winston Churchill’s niece.
Also, the fact that Ian Fleming was inspired by Skarbek to create the figure of the Bond spy-lover, Vesper Lynd, was mentioned in the text.
“She was Bond author Ian Fleming’s lover and murdered by a besotted ex,” writes The Sun. “After she died, five of her men made a pact never to reveal their liaisons.”
The author also tells that after the war, she was abandoned by Britain and was forced to work as a cleaner and shop assistant in London.
Her life ended violently when one of her ex-partners, Mr Muldowney, obsessed with her, stabbed her to death with a knife in a hotel corridor.
The amazing story of the Polish-British spy was now presented on the big screen in cinemas across the globe.
The article also mentions that during the moviemaking, Russian propaganda used photos from the sets to attack and discredit Poland online:
“While making the film, set builders hung swastika flags around a square in the Polish capital, Warsaw, for a scene which sees spy Krystyna Skarbek collecting microfilm from a resistance fighter. But within hours, pictures of the scene were being posted on social media — by Vladimir Putin’s cyber warriors. Producer Matt Whyte says: “The next day, the Russians used the scene as propaganda, saying the Poles were still Nazi sympathisers.”
The film will also be available for viewers via Amazon, Sky, Virgin and Apple TV+ from 27 October.
Source: The Sun
Photo: The Sun
Tomasz Modrzejewski
