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Who we were? And who we are now? Thwarted in his attempt to make a feature film in his native Poland in 1967 the way he wanted to make it director Jerzy Skolimowski returned to the project in 1981, and the result is this experimental film which is a now and then meditation on history, censorship, the artist and the 'manipulations of time', apparently constructed like a diary. The first colour section (filmed in 1981) is the better and more interesting section, being a rumination on cinema and Skolimowski's life and role in cinema, whether acting in other people's films like 'Circle of Deceit' (called 'Forgery' here, and filmed in a bombed out Beirut), references to his own previous films (with Jane Asher and Alan Bates), as well as protest marches, and an exhibition of his own paintings. The second longer section (filmed in black and white in 1967) is the symbolic, allegorical, surrealistic account of the reuniting of five former medical students, who travel in a freight train/cattle truck accompanied by white plaster and candles, as memories are dredged up and confessions made (things almost go pear shaped for the five when they accidentally (?) give a giant portrait of Stalin an extra pair of eyes) by these doctors to the consumerist slaughter. Dryly comic and satirical, did the censors refuse to release this because (in their opinion) they thought it was too silly to inflict on the public - or too thought provoking? As usual for Skolimowski the imagery is sometimes striking.

As a long-time Jerzy Skolimowski fan I was sorely disappointed with HANDS UP!, the 1981 "reimagining" of his 1967 banned movie of the same title. Way too personal, the resulting mish-mash is of interest perhaps only to Jerzy's biographer.

Starring both in the original film and the dominant 1981 added footage, Jerzy comes off as Orson Welles on steroids, but with far less interesting results than one of Welles' latter-day "meta-films", notably F FOR FAKE. We're told that Jerzy suddenly was phoned (circa 1980) with news that his too-hot-to-handle in 1967 RECA DO GORY was finally permitted a release by the Polish authorities, as a result of the revolution fomented by Solidarity. Footage of Jerzy & buddies marching in London in support of the movement back home is included.

But the added footage is all in-jokes and cronyism, as Jerzy's latter-day jet set of filmmakers, ranging from his current employer Volker Schlondorff for CIRCLE OF DECEIT and co-star from that film Bruno Ganz to Alan Bates from his '70s classic THE SHOUT, and even forgotten British bad boy Mike Sarne (still revered by cultists but who went from hot (JOANNA) to not (MYRA BRECKINRIDGE) in record time). Their horsing around on screen goes nowhere.

Ultimately Jerzy, who's obviously had second thoughts about showing his dated 1967 opus to the public so many years later, reverts to presenting several scenes from the original, tinted from black and white to some quasi-color look. What we get is absurdist drama from a talented troupe of improvisers, including not only Jerzy but Tadeusz Lomnicki, play-acting in a purported railroad car set, meant to symbolize both Holocaust and Stalinist deportation horrors of the '40s and '50s.

Naturally his visuals are dramatic and abstract (with uncannily suggestive use of candles in the frame), but what might have been a da da-ist Blast! in 1967 to arouse or enrage the viewer is now mere derriere-garde rubbish.

Jerzy clearly should have permitted viewing (film festivals perhaps the beginning and end of distribution for such a relic) of the intact original, and not potchkied with it , destroying any residual value. Yes, HANDS UP! is merely a forerunner of the endless parade of "director's cuts" and "reimaginings" that dominate our Video Era remnants of cinema. I shudder to think what a future generation will be subjected to when ultimately Welles' THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND or Jerry Lewis' ill-fated THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED finally see the light of day in much-adulterated form.

This title should be known to every die-hard art-house fanatic.This is Skolimowski at his most daring/poetic/hypnotic/way-out/histrionic.This film is very visceral/vitriolic/political yet somehow bristling with gallows humour that is so typical to Polish avant-garde. Gorgeously shot in black and white makes "La Chinoise" by Godard a freaking J O K E. Worth just for that totally psychedelic intro/comment made 14 years later when the Commies finally let the film leave its casemates. Four-eyed Stalin on a big screen is a mind-blowing experience.

I found this to be a highly thought-provoking film. In 1981 a frame was added to a 14-year-old ensemble film involving five young Polish actors (all but one of which is now dead - a poignant fact in itself). The frame itself served little cinematic or narrative purpose as far as I could see, but the central story was quite moving. Anyone with an interest in Eastern European reflections on the Holocaust would be well advised to give it a watch.