Hands Up!

Five former colleagues have a surreal reunion in the film that saw Jerzy Skolimowski go into exile.

Skolimowski’s alter ego Andrzej Leszczyc returns for a final bow as one of five thirtysomething former colleagues whose reunion, taking place in an abandoned railway wagon, becomes a sombre reflection on both Poland’s past and possible future. It proved too near the knuckle for the communist authorities, who not only banned it but effectively sent its director into a lengthy exile.

Skolimowski later revisited the film and added a sequence that explains why it was originally blocked by the censors.