Hands Up! (1985)
January 21, 1985Release Date
Hands Up! (1985)
January 21, 1985Release Date
Plot.
Where to Watch.
Cast & Crew.
Jerzy Skolimowski
Andrzej Leszczyc, Zastawa (1967 footage) / Self (1981 footage) / Director / Screenplay
Joanna Szczerbic
Alfa (1967 footage)
Tadeusz Łomnicki
Opel Record (1967 footage)
Adam Hanuszkiewicz
Romeo (1967 footage)
Bogumił Kobiela
Wartburg (1967 footage)
Alan Bates
Self (1981 footage)
Jane Asher
Self (1981 footage)
David Essex
Self (1981 footage)
Bruno Ganz
Self (1981 footage)
Karol Kulik
Self (1981 footage)
Michael Sarne
Self (1981 footage)
Gerald Scarfe
Self (1981 footage)
Volker Schlöndorff
Self (1981 footage)
Feliks Topolski
Self (1981 footage)
Fred Zinnemann
Self (1981 footage)
Margarethe von Trotta
Self (1981 footage) (uncredited)
Grażyna Jasińska-Wiśniarowska
Editor
Krzysztof Penderecki
Composer
Barbara Sass
Assistant Director
Stanislaw Matuszewski
Assistant Camera
Jerzy Nitecki
Production Manager
Tadeusz Karwański
Production Manager
Andrzej Wróbel
Assistant Director
Jacek Dzik
Assistant Director
Andrzej Gronau
Assistant Camera
Jerzy Szurowski
Assistant Camera
Ewa Symko-Marczewska
Assistant Makeup Artist
Joanna Lelanow
Assistant Production Design
Józef Jarosz
Production Assistant
Wiesława Karwańska
Production Assistant
Maria Mazek
Production Assistant
Teresa Bonder
Production Assistant
Zenon Wilk
Assistant Production Design
Stanisław Wohl
Additional Photography
Zbigniew Stanek
Production Assistant
Czesław Jacenko
Production Assistant
Hieronim Langner
Sound Assistant
Jerzy Bialek
Assistant Camera
Piotr Obłoza
Assistant Camera
Jadwiga Ignatczenko
Assistant Editor
Jan Kalisz
Sound Assistant
Stanisław Hojden
Sound Assistant
Andrzej Przedworski
Assistant Production Design
Elżbieta Arend
Painter
Zdzislaw Beksinski
Painter
Edward Dwurnik
Painter
Łukasz Korolkiewicz
Painter
Zbylut Grzywacz
Painter
Teresa Pągowska
Painter
Jerzy Wolf
Painter
Leszek Sobocki
Painter
Irena Włodarczyk
Costume Design
Małgorzata Przedpełska-Bieniek
Music Consultant
Henryka Dancygier
Assistant Editor
Urszula Wolska
Assistant Production Manager
Jakub Z. Rucinski
Assistant Director
Zbigniew Szołyga
Production Assistant
Barbara Pawłowska
Production Assistant
Maria Telenkiewicz
Assistant Director
Elżbieta Łupińska-Stępniak
Assistant Production Design
Marcin Sznajder
Stunts
Anna Śmiech
Makeup Artist
Witold Sobociński
Director of Photography
Andrzej Kostenko
Director of Photography / Screenplay
Media.
Details.
Release DateJanuary 21, 1985
Original NameRęce do góry
StatusReleased
Running Time1h 16m
Genres
Last updated:
This Movie Is About.
Wiki.
Ręce do góry (known in its subtitled English version as Hands Up!) is a Polish drama film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski. It is the fourth of a series of semi-autobiographical films in which Skolimowski himself plays his alter ego Andrzej Leszczyc. At the time it was banned in Poland, under the Communist regime, for 18 years because it depicted the Stalinist past.
The film was originally made in 1967 in monochrome by Zespół Filmowy Syrena (pl) studio. In a 20-minute section (filmed in colour) added by Skolimowski in 1981 he explains how the original was withheld by Polish censors of the time and that this was a principal cause of his leaving his country; however following liberalisation in Poland, he was invited to resuscitate it. The introduction includes, apart from some fictional apocalyptic passages, shots of Beirut ruined by the civil wars of the 1970s, where Skolimowski is working as an actor on Volker Schlöndorff's German film Die Fälschung (Circle of Deceit), and also shots of London featuring demonstrations in favour of Solidarność, Speaker's Corner, and an exhibition of Skolimowski's own paintings. These sections include cameo roles by Bruno Ganz, David Essex, Mike Sarne and others. Some of the music in this introduction is from the 1970 choral work Kosmogonia by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki.
The original film is a surrealistic reunion of Leszczyc (who has apparently become a veterinary surgeon) and some of his student colleagues. They refer to themselves by the makes of the cars they own - Leszczyc owns a Zastawa, one owns a Wartburg, the others own more upmarket models such as an Opel Rekord or the Alfa Romeo owned by the unhappily married couple. Supposedly taking speed (although it is later revealed the pills are a placebo), and carousing in the cattle truck of a freight train, the group offers various satirical sidelights on Polish society of the 1960s. The characters also reflect that the truck may have been one of those in which the former generation were transported during World War II to the Nazi death camps.
The final credits show the actors as they are in 1981, with the exception of Bogumił Kobiela, who died in 1969.
The film was screened out of competition at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival.