Project UFO is the kind of series that, through a quirky narrative, tries to send a subtle message and make us aware of how leaders often mislead the public, hide information, and influence their perspective. But the problem is that it is neither able to be quirky enough to entertain the audience nor is it so suspenseful or dramatic as to keep you on the edge of your seat. If making a social statement, exposing the intentions of world leaders was the sole purpose, then why wait for the last 10 minutes of the series to talk about it? The makers wanted to draw the attention of the viewers to the big picture, but how is that possible when that great revelation was done in such a superficial manner? Or it might be the case that they wanted the viewers to go back and read about Polish history, the anti-authoritarian social movement that came to be known as Solidarity, and how the totalitarian government spread misinformation to divert people’s attention. For that also to happen, the narrative had to be impactful, which it wasn’t in this case. Nonetheless, let’s find out what happened in the Project UFO series and how a Polish citizen actually spotted an alien.
Spoiler Alert
How did Sokolik meet Polgar?
Jan Polgar was a popular TV personality who hosted a show named Close Encounters. On that show, he interviewed people who had these outlandish conspiracy theories, most prominently about UFOs and aliens. Zbigniew Sokolik, a ufologist and conspiracy theorist, apparently had one such experience where he saw a UFO right in front of his eyes, and he even clicked a picture of it. He went on Polgar’s show, but somehow things didn’t go as he would have liked. Sokolik, instead of getting appreciated and applauded for his path-breaking findings, got mocked by the audience. I believe Polgar was solely responsible for what had happened, as his line of questioning was such that it discredited Sokolik’s narrative to a certain degree. It’s not like Polgar wanted to tarnish Sokolik’s reputation as such, as he liked the sincerity of the man. Polgar just felt that the interview would increase his viewership, but nothing of that sort happened. In fact, the management had already made arrangements to take the prime slot from him and give it to a hypnotist named Mamzer. Polgar’s ego was hurt, and he was adamant about finding a story that would take the entire world by storm.
What was the conflict between Polgar and Sokolik?
One fine day, Polgar got a call from Secretary Henryk Wierusz, who asked the former to meet him immediately. Henryk told Polgar that his wife, Wera, had gotten a letter from a man named Josef Kunik who claimed to have seen extraterrestrial beings. Henryk wanted Polgar to investigate the matter and find out if the old man was speaking the truth or not. Polgar got excited, as he saw a chance to revive his show and his career. It is important to mention here that Henryk’s wife, Wera, worked for the same media house as Polgar, and she’d had an affair with him too. They didn’t have any emotional attachments with each other, but they did meet from time to time and indulged in carnal pleasures. Polgar got in touch with Sokolik, and he asked him to visit Mr. Kunik. Sokolik did just that, and according to his speculations and research, determined that Mr. Kunik was speaking the truth. Polgar trusted his judgment, as he knew that if there was anybody who knew what was what when it came to aliens, then it was Sokolik. Polgar knew that it wasn’t possible for an old man like Kunik to fool Sokolik, and so the former decided to take his investigation a step further and conduct tests on the old man so that he had proper proof that he was not lying about anything. Now, during that time, Sokolik felt that he was left out of the entire process when it was he who had gone and talked to Mr. Kunik in the first place. The reason was that Henryk had told Polgar that it wasn’t good for them to be seen with Sokolik.
Henryk very clearly told Polgar that because of the interview he’d taken back in the day, people didn’t have trust in Sokolik. Polgar didn’t have anything personal against Sokolik, but he did cut him out of the entire process. Polgar’s actions had consequences, something that he couldn’t have foreseen at that point in time. Sokolik conspired with Wera behind Polgar’s back, and he gave her all the material that they had collected. So before Polgar could break the story, Wera seized the opportunity and did an in-depth show about the alien sightings. But still Polgar was able to revive his career, as Henryk wanted everybody to win. Apart from Mr. Kunik, even Sokolik’s daughter had stated that she had seen something similar to what Kunik had, which in turn validated Kunik’s claims. Henryk told Polgar that he would give him an opportunity to interview Sara, Sokolik’s child with Julia, and get his prime time slot back. So in a way, everybody actually won. But it was still not clear if Mr. Kunik had actually seen the aliens or not.
Did Mr. Kunik Actually See The Aliens?
Polgar was surprised when he got to know that Henryk knew about his and Wera’s affair, and that he was absolutely fine with it. Henryk, as stated earlier, wanted everybody to win because he knew that he had to use people like Sokolik and Polgar to achieve a larger goal, something that had the potential to determine the fate of the entire nation. We got to know that the government, and even Sokolik, spread lies about the aliens just because they wanted to distract the people from real issues. The people in power wanted to spread propaganda, and though there were a few journalists like Polgar who believed in their lies, there were a few who knew that the officials were misleading the masses, yet they chose to stay quiet as it probably benefited them. As for Sokolik, he lost his brother when he was quite young. Through a flashback sequence, we got to know that Sokolik, his brother Antek, and Julia (who had a child with Sokolik) were childhood friends. A fishing trip turned into a nightmare for them when Antek got electrocuted and he fell into the water. His body was never found, and eventually Sokolik became obsessed with his alien theories, and he made himself believe that they came from beneath the ocean. He said that they came up on USOs (unidentified submersible objects) that were capable of flying and traveling under the water. Sokolik had never seen any aliens, but he wanted the world to believe in his narrative. The picture he took was probably of some heavy duty truck/tanker that looked like an alien aircraft from a distance. He felt that if the authorities initiated an underwater investigation to look for aliens, then probably his brother would be found. Also, it was Sokolik who had hypnotized Kunik and made him tell lies about spotting aliens in his neighborhood.
Sokolik never used hypnosis on his daughter, but probably Sara ended up being influenced by whatever she saw happening around her. Maybe she got so impacted that she started believing in those theories. Maybe Sokolik used subtle techniques to influence her subconscious mind, and his tricks really worked when the little girl started to believe that she too had seen aliens. Sokolik knew deep down that the government was using them as pawns, but he didn’t mind it, as it gave him the opportunity to find his brother. In Project UFO’s ending, we saw that Julia found Antek’s wooden hand lying in the lake, and she brought it to show it to Sokolik and prove to him that aliens didn’t abduct his brother. Julia, prior to that, had gotten Sokolik arrested for the illegal sale of alcohol. She had done so probably to make sure that her daughter’s future was safe, and maybe to get a promotion too. Sokolik had disappointed Julia in ways that she couldn’t have imagined, and she had no expectations from him. She knew that he was a supporter of Solidarity, and so she didn’t want any kind of association with him to hamper Sara’s life. By getting Sokolik arrested, Julia proved her allegiance to the government and, in turn, got promoted too. As for Polgar, he wrote a book that became a bestseller, and he gave credit to Sokolik for whatever he had done. Wera got the prime slot, which later got snatched by the general, and she lived under the false belief, at least for a brief period, that she had manipulated the system when the truth was the complete opposite. Sokolik and Polgar met at the end of the series, where the latter realized that he had been lied to and the former knew about it from the very beginning.
