director Jerzy Skolimowski
screenplay Jerzy Skolimowski, Andrzej Kostenko
director of photography Witold Sobociński, Andrzej Kostenko
music Krzysztof Komeda
with Jerzy Skolimowski, Joanna Szczerbic, Tadeusz Łomnicki, Adam Hanuszkiewicz, Bogumił Kobiela
awards
Special Recognition at the Barcelona International Film Festival, 1981
Journalists Award at the 8th Festival of Polish Feature Films in Gdańsk, 1981
JERZY SKOLIMOWSKI, AFTER 14 YEARS ‘HANDS UP!’ AGAIN; INTERVIEW BY ANNA KOŚCIELAK [PO 14 LATACH ZNÓW ‘RĘCE DO GÓRY’. ROZMOWA Z ANNĄ KOŚCIELAK], ‘GŁOS WYBRZEŻA’, 1981, NO. 186
In 1967 I heard no arguments against the film. I was not told why it was stopped. (…) I stood up for it and played my strongest card. I said that until everything was clear about ‘Hands Up!’ I would not work in Poland. I did not expect things would end up the way they did. (…) My criteria for the retakes were simple. When selecting the present shape of the film I imagined it as a diary, a record of the past and of what was going on around me in April 1981. I believed that only this form would yield something interesting. This is the most sincere film I have made.
WŁADYSŁAW CYBULSKI, FILM BUFF’S NOTES – ‘HANDS UP!’ [ZAPISKI KINOMANA – ‘RĘCE DO GÓRY’], ‘DZIENNIK POLSKI’, 1985, NO. 57
The mishaps of ‘Hands Up!’ are an unintentional illustration of the zigzags of our recent history. The first stage – the mid-50’s – is the reference point for the plot. The next is set in the late 60’s, when the film was born and froze at its birth. Then, in 1981, the ban was lifted and the author shot a new prologue. (…) In the last and most recent stage, the prologue was dropped as it had lost its topicality. As a result, the film from 1967 has regained its stylistic homogeneity. To see a scene of a trial in which five youth organization activists are accused of sabotage in connection with a faulty portrait of Stalin means to remember a great deal. This lesson – morally corrupting – of fear and opportunism will determine the careers of the characters. The group, trapped in a goods wagon going nowhere, makes a kind of (…) confession of the sin of betraying their old ideals for easy careers.
history periods
