"Good day." "Your tickets, please." "Here you go." "How can I identify you?" "That's me." "Take it off." "Haven't you heard about Chernobyl?" "Radioactivity." "Take it off." "It's you." "Here is your id and your ticket." "Good bye." "Thanks." "There is a time in a man's life when every woman calls you "my angel" and wants to give you her breast to suck." "It never repeats itself and later it's hard to find even one volunteer." "Here they are." "The ones and only." "Just as pals from the army." "Marek..." "Marek Late." "Just a second." "My father." "Used to say I was a cute newborn but they switched me in the ward." "I don't know if he was joking." "Things really started to happen after I'd turned eight." "Wake up, sonny." "Marek, wake up." "My mother." "For her I was the dearest person on earth." "She let me believe that for everything there was a why and a wherefore." "That even an innocent event could have irreversible consequences." "Dear children, let this holy water remind you of your baptism." "Jesus will call upon you to unite with Him." "This union will occur fully when for the first time, today you'll receive the Holy Communion." "Do you renounce the evil spirit?" "Body of Christ." "Body of Christ." "Dear God!" "What about me?" "But after all God didn't forget about me." "And perhaps more out of pity than real need he took interest in my case." "Say cheese!" "Hold on!" "And the shoes." "From my childhood I remember one day when I was going home from school. I was ten." "For the first time I communicated with my idol" " God." "I'd never seen him, but we had good relations." "But the Devil took the shape of a small blonde." "Dear Lord..." "That's me." "I've got a favour to ask." "Don't let them take me to the blackboard." "Does it have to be now?" "I'm talking to God." "Which day of the month is it?" "The 23rd." "Number 23." "Please, God..." "Marek Late, come to the blackboard." "Tell me, please..." "Tell me, please..." "Why are you so scrawny?" "So small?" "With such shiny eyes?" "Cause right now my mind is growing." "Dear God, you scared me." "I didn't pay attention." "Why?" "Do you know what a woman is?" "They were somehow wiser." "I wanted to be like them." "And what?" "A mistake." "The task has been accomplished." "We gathered... 30 kg of waste paper." "Super!" "At the next meeting you'll receive "gatherer" badges." "That's all." "Can I do it next week?" "We're finished with this project." "But you can take it to the purchasing centre and get the "thrifty" badge." "What was I to do?" "In the paper mill where my father worked they were short of paper." "I was pissed." "I'd always been the king of waste paper, and now such a screwup." "But as it turned out it was all a part of a Divine Plan." "My God came up with it for me." "Especially for me." "I didn't get the badge and was thrown out of the scouts for stealing books about Vinnetou, but I had a new friend." "That was all that counted." "Carry them always on you." "Chief..." "What is the most important thing in life?" "To be a chief." "What do you mean?" "Tell me!" "What?" "!" "Be a chief!" "Easy to say." "Be like Vinnetou, like famous athlete, astronaut, boxer or pope." "Universe, Vatican..." "Everything is taken." "They've been there, done that." "Weighted all, measured all." "And what of me?" "Now what?" "Come on." "I'd hoped that when I grew up I'd better express my dreams." ""A "." ""G"." ""Z"." ""B"." ""Z"." ""U"." "Skinny legs, pimples, hair in strange places and this part till now used only for pissing, which'd taken a new personality." "I spent long hours in the john, urging him to fly." "I was flying..." "We were flying together, he was ahead, I followed." "Maciek..." "Wait up." "My soul hurts. I'm suffering." "Suffering." "Do you think about who you want to become?" "No." "Where are you running to?" "Around." "I realised then how difficult it was to find two people thinking in the same way." "Help me." "How can I fulfil my ambitions?" "I need something that will guide me." "Here you go." "Great." "What am I to do with it?" "You shoot, God carries the arrows." "O, my God!" "Where's my armband?" "I didn't want to go to school." "I didn't want to think." "Move aside." "l'm on strike." "You're too young." "Not at all." "What's the matter?" "Every year you go to summer camp." "And away for the winter break." "Almost for free." "Let him rebel." "Medical care and vacations almost for free." "You can study all you want, provided you're gifted." "You can become an engineer, What more do you want?" "Oranges." "They are on their way from Cuba." "Where is my fucking armband?" "Here." "Give it to me. I'm gonna go and fight for your oranges." "I rebelled against my father, he against the authorities." "He seemed such a great leader that I had to follow him." "I'll never forget it." "A giant machine stops." "There is silence." "Father was sent to an internment camp." "Mother often visited him." "There was a crisis." "Meat was rationed, and we were always hungry." "We needed meat." "I felt that something was blocking me." "That something was deterring my development." "Was coercing me." "Wrong word." "Was cramping my style." "That's right." "And then something happen." "Really something." "Alone!" "Ah, men!" "And who of you, divining my spirit, grasps the meaning of its song?" "Whose eye will see the radiance of its shining?" "Alas, who toils to sing for men, toils long!" "Shut the fuck up!" "You... savages!" "You chickenshits!" "You motherfuckers full of stink!" "Shut the fuck up!" "And that's that!" "All of you!" "Stand up!" "Give me the rule of souls!" "This lifless building that common people call the world, and praise, I so despise that I have never tested whether my word has not the power to raze and ruin it." "But well l know if through the portal of air I swiftly shot my will I might put out a hundred stars and light a hundred still, for l am immortal!" "Chief!" "Chief!" "Where are you!" "What's your problem?" "l'm looking for Vinnetou." "That's me." "Give me the rule of souls..." "What?" "l want to be an actor." "The amount of radiation poses no real health threat." "Yes. lt was the big explosion at Chernobyl." "And that man caused a great eruption of dreams in my brain." "Oh, the great year 1 986." "The year of the big explosion." "At last I knew what it meant to be a chief." "I took off to become a chief." "I left chaos behind." "There was a straight road in front of me." "I felt like a man." "It's very manly to set a goal and then to pursue it." "Thanks." "I'm travelling by train for the first time." "I'm afraid too, chief." "I had a lot of experience, I had a goal, there was one straight road ahead." "One straight road." "One straight road." "Silence!" "Please, be quiet!" "Please, be quiet!" "I want to welcome you to our school." "Tom Burzynski alias Thunder. I'm studying directing." "I'm here to take care of you." "What's the name of this school?" "It's a drama school." "30 people for one place." "So be humble." "Over there you see a list." "You go in alphabetical order." "Prepare your lines." "Concentrate, take two deep breaths, and go in. ls that clear?" "l can't here you!" "Yes!" "Thanks." "What have you prepared?" "The Great Improvisation." "Man..." "They all have that." "You have to be... unique." "Otherwise they won't notice you." "Want a smoke?" "lt's forbidden." "Not for us." "I saw him smiling at you." "Who?" "This one, on the stand." "You saw it?" "He'd seen it." "Really seen it." "I realised that next to me there was someone like me." "A friend." "What's your name?" "Marek Late." "Gate?" "Late." "Don't sweat it." "My last name also beginns with a "p"." "Wiktor." "Wiktor... my friend." "He suggested that we should take the exam together." "He would play sour milk and I would play a bottle." "Strange but very original." "It's not easy to be a believable bottle." "You've got to be sure that you control what's inside." "That sour milk." "You've got to give it shape." "What would be sour milk without a bottle?" "A white spot." "You'll play the bottle, I will be sour milk." "You are talented." "You'll make a career." "I've got other plans." "Come, I show you a real rehearsal and a real actress." "That's our task." "And that we must do." "What's your answer?" "Martha." "Go away." "My..." "You know." "Leave me alone." "Love or power." "I have to choose between them." "Why can't I have everything?" "After all I am a queen." "l'm sorry..." "Well..." "Very sorry." "Am I awake?" "You're dreaming." "is it a dream?" "Will you stay?" "Yes." "Are you playing?" "No." "So..." "Let the moment last." "He pretends that he knows how to." "And does he?" "He'll say that he hasn't got the right tools." "If I had the right tools..." "What the fuck?" "What is she doing?" "Pissing me off." "And what?" "Drive." "How did you do it?" "By magic." "ltching elbows, buttertlies in the stomach, runny brain, viral infection of the thoughts." "Only Martha." "Nobody, nothing." "Just her." "She was everywhere." "Wherever I looked." "The streets were full of her." "Cars were humming." "A light breeze was murmuring in a cloud of fumes." "I thought then..." "Now I know." "I know!" "I know what it means to be a chief." "It means to love." "Sure." "To love people and values." "And your goal." "But I'm in love." "I love her." "What's with your face?" "War paint?" "We've been drafted." "How come?" "What about Martha?" "Drama school?" "We flunked." "He was right." "We flunked." "As solders of the Polish Army..." "Not all of us." "Wiktor passed." "... guard the rule of the people..." "He was more convincing" " as a buttermilk that I as a bottle." " ... in alliance with Soviet Army..." "My bottle couldn't hold sour milk." "It was brim-full with love." "... from imperialism." "Martha didn't have time to come and see me swear my oath." "Am I do be disloyal to my country, let me be punished by the people's justice." "Attention!" "Right, march!" "I wrote to her many letters." "She didn't reply but I was sure she was thinking of me." "There is so quiet here at dusk." "Only the rustle of wind." "Up!" "Down!" "Get a fucking move on!" "Up!" "is this "down" !" "Up!" "And such a warm wave comes over me when I think of you." "Late, hurry up!" "Down!" "Move it!" "Music exercises were my favourite." "I attended them all cause I wasn't allowed to leave the base." "Dear God, that's me." "Marek Late." "Who?" "I've not been in touch but I have a request." "I want to leave here." "I'm in love, you know..." "Love is everything." "l have to get out of here." "Then go." "I craved oranges." "Not stringy, Cuban but rather Spanish, Moroccan or Greek." "Heaps of oranges." "Drink up. lt's on me." "But now we had to straighten some things up." "We tried to do it like seasoned actors." "You should get in now." "I'm well connected." "We'll see." "I don't want any favours." "You'll find out tomorrow." "Come now." "Tomorrow..." "How is it between you two?" "Tasty bread sticks." "Why don't you talk to me?" "Salty." "Why haven't you written to me?" "Not that much." "It was sudden. I don't know you." "Don't you like beer?" "How is it between you two?" "Not particularly." "I like him." "We are pals." "What about you?" "Let's have it out straight." "I love it." "I love Martha." "And you?" "Really?" "What about me?" "Yeah." "What are your plans?" "It's all the same to me." "Don't spoil the fun." "We haven't reached an agreement." "There were two of us, and only one of her." "Do you like convertibles?" "I like other things." "We are going to the Caribbean." "Want to go with us?" "Yeah." "I passed." "pronunciation" "Count your teeth with your tongue." "Left to right and back." "Stretch all the face muscels." "Pretend to be a roe deer." "Wake up, girls." "You are roe deer." "And now take a deep breath, open your mouth and tighten your muscels." "Congratulations." "Remember that it is a calling to be an actor." "An actor should set an example for others." "He reins over people's souls." "Keeps guard over his native tongue." "You don't remember me but you came to my high school to recite poetry." "Quite so..." "You won." "Should I give you a lift?" "What do you drive?" "The same car as 20 years ago." "We'll walk." "You should never give up." "You must perform." "You know it well, Martha." "You play in the theatre." "Yes, step by step." "You should build your happiness." "l've got something better for you." "Something better." "A plan." "I thought it through while you were away." "I prepared everything." "My uncle has a jewellery store." "At the front there are cameras, alarms, at the back nothing." "You go in, open the vault, and you find a great loot." "Diamonds, gold..." "Uncle is a collector." "You fill your rucksack and leave." "And you are a king of life!" "Once I read in a john, "Check your shit for diamonds"." "Everything is possible." "He told you about the heist?" "From now on I only eat caviar." "Scram!" "You can eat cheese if you wish." "What are you looking at?" "You." "The tree is rustling." "Louder!" "I wanna hear it!" "Where is the second tree?" "What's your fucking hurry?" "Wiktor?" "Did you want to play alone?" "Pear!" "Come on!" "I wanna see pear on stage!" "Get up!" "Move it!" "Your lines." "I'm a pear and they are dwarfs." "Wiktor, now you!" "Broader!" "We're in a theatre." "Broader." "That's it!" "Get up!" "Don't destroy the fucking branches." "What are you doing?" "You're looking well." "You too." "How old are you?" "As old as everybody else." "l need someone like you." "Worn out." "For a commercial." "What?" "l want you for a commercial." "OK." "One condition." "No smoking on the set." "I haven't really played in anything." "Don't wanna end up as a detergent." "I'd rather play Hamlet." "Give me a ring." "Tomasz Burzynski, director" "Your tree was great." "The urinals are making music." "No!" "You can't be a whore." "As an actor and your teacher I repeat, "No!"." "You are to young and too gifted to sell out." "Your calling is to play in a theatre." "You have to choose:" "art or commercials." "Thank you." "l believe in myself again." "Give it to me." "So it won't tempt the others." "Thanks." "You've saved me." "Success, career..." "This I can't decipher." "l see a loaded man." "Who is he?" "lt's not that simple." "Do you know?" "Someone very smart," "with a sense of humour." "l know who you're talking about." "Such people are a rarity." "Does he love me?" "l don't see it." "Come on." "Look closely." "l see an initial of his name." "l know it." ""W" -"M"." "The way I look at it." "A good one." "This is Martha." "Leave a massage after the beep." "I've always wanted to bring you here. lt's my place." "Beautiful, isn't it?" "That's right." "Everything is beneath you." "Beautiful." "You know what?" "Forget about Martha." "You forget about her." "Why should you force yourself?" "She's not a woman for you." "You're hopelessly in love." "Maybe there is hope." "And you're the one that's in love." "The other day in the bar you said that it was all the same to you." "It's not like that for me." "You know why you are here?" "You brought me." "l didn't want to be in the army." "And you got in cause my mom was one of the judges." "Don't act so surprised." "That was what you wanted." "Did you think you were so talented?" "Marek!" "You can't even handle your hands." "Such a great actor." "You and Martha are alike." "You both come from small towns." "You think you're so special." "Shit!" "Two knights were competing for the hand of a princess." "She liked them both and didn't know how to choose between them." "Her father, the king, organised a tournament, which was supposed to settle the matter." " Greetings, noble sir." " Greetings, spotless knight." "I swear on my honour that this fight will be noble and beautiful." "My sentiments exactly." "To the death." "To the death." "Stop, noble knights." "Before you draw first blood let us talk about it peacefully." "The king should agree." "Let us talk." "Let us sit at a round table." "Thanks. lt's a wrap." "Great." "They've bought it." "Don't be mad. I was drunk." "... the authorities and the opposition." "They often knew each other only from the newspapers." "In a few minutes they'll appear together on our TV screens." "People can come to an agreement." "Nothing is that difficult that you have to fight over it." "We weren't enemies." "We were brothers, accidentally standing on opposite sides of a barricade." "It must end well." "Go!" "Wait a minute!" "Marek," "l'm not playing with you." "Hold on!" "When I was a kid I wanted to eat my fill of oranges." "You know... I used to say to my mom, "l want oranges"." "And she replied, "Sonny, they are on their way from Cuba." "They will arrive in a three weeks time"." "And she smiled." "Do you remember green oranges?" "Green, stringy and incredibly sweet oranges." "They were from Cuba." "Remember?" "l remember parcels in the church." "There was detergent and cheese inside." "Some cheese was orange in colour." "Marek!" "Coming." "Go ahead." "l'm going." "I'll be right back." "Go if you want." "I'm going." "For the road." "Check it out." "What?" "Oranges." "Uncle Gierek is in town." "Uncle Gierek..." "Eat." "l'm full." "Eat." "What's the matter?" "l can't." "is everything all right?" "Talk!" "lt's not." "Then take her." "Understood?" "You've fucking won." "Devour her." "God, you're stupid." "What have you done?" "Am I bleeding?" "Yeah..." "Am I?" "Nescafe, makes you life colourtul." "Hi." "That's me." "I can't talk." "Marek is at my place." "We moved in together." "She had a child but I didn't mind." "We loved each other." "Help me!" "Nobody will help you!" "Stop!" "Don't move!" "Release that beauty or..." "Or what?" "No!" "What's the matter?" "Why don't you talk?" "Why don't we." "What about?" "My saviour." "For the first time I was tasting the every day aspect of love." "I had to make a living." "A beautiful woman needs a beautiful frame." "I started working like a madman." "What are you doing?" "l love you." "Wiktor prefers blondes" "Wiktor's victory" "You're late." "What's that?" "Something stolen." "That's for you." "Try them on." "Try them on?" "Stockings?" "People are looking." "Try them on." "They were very expensive." "OK." "Hurry up." "Marek, let's get away." "Where to?" "Wherever." "l'm suffocating here." "What about Australia?" "All right." "Please, think it over." "With you I'll go to the end of the earth." "Let's stay." "With you I can stay." "Come here." "Give me a kiss." "I love you." "Dear God?" "Dear God?" "Can you hear me?" "It's me." "Marek Late." "l wanted to..." "This line is overloaded." "No wonder." "Millions of worshippers were praying, focusing on themselves God's attention." "And I only wanted to thank Him for her." "How is love?" "Love?" "Chief, it's wonderful." "Are you sure?" "Yes." "Even if it's not wonderful it's wonderful." "These are the best moments of my life." "Why are you lying?" "Take your mark." "lntroduce yourself." "Marek Late." " Agency?" " l'm an actor." "The sides." "Right side." "Left." "Show me joy." "Sadness." "Anger." "Absentmindedness." "Love." "What kind of commercial is it?" "You'll find out if they choose you." "Thanks." "And do something with those hands." "Your plans for the future?" "I've got a few but I don't want to jinx it" " by elaborating on them." " And your private plans?" "l'm planing to go on a vacation." "You can afford it." "You're a successful man." "It's rare among your generation." "You know... lt's a very complicated issue." "We, now in our thirties, are in a difficult situation." "We were too young to fight for freedom and now we're too old to take advantage of our European upbringing." "We have a special task." "We should not let anybody call us "the lost generation"." "Beautifully put." "How about love?" "Do women always choose strong men with money?" "That's a stereotype." "Women don't need money." "They eat like birds, drink very little and don't spend on lady friends." "Go ahead." "Shall we?" "I mastered the hamburger." "Now you try it." "I mastered the hamburger." "Now you try it." "Yes..." "What's up?" "I'm all right." "Really." "OK." "I've go to go." "l didn't hear you come in." "Who was it?" "We have to pay the rent." "Was it Wiktor?" "Turn it off." "Yes, it was Wiktor." "He has a job for you." "What kind of a job?" "Background in a commercial." "Cut!" "Thanks a lot." "Another take." "l'll help you." "I can manage." "Camera!" "Rolling." "Action!" "I mastered the hamburger." "Now you try it." "Yuck!" "No!" "I'm going out!" "Martha?" "Will you marry me?" "Long or short answer?" "Short." "I'll think about it." "Go." "This is Martha." "Leave a massage after the beep." "Let's go, son." "You've changed." "I'd changed." "They remained the same and I..." "Why hadn't I noticed it before?" "Why didn't anybody tell me?" "End of the route!" "Why?" "lt doesn't pay to go further." "Late?" "Marek Late?" "Don't you recognise me?" "I recognised you at once." "Everybody knows your face." "Do I know you?" "Maciek." "We used to jog together." "You wore glasses." "Had surgery." "Looking great, pal." "You've made it in Warsaw." "Everybody envies you." "I've seen you in that commercial." "What a career." "Can I give you a lift?" "l'd rather walk." "We have to celebrate our meeting." "What do you say?" "My treat." "Get in!" "Will you eat something?" "He got laid off and for his severance pay he bought a TV and a satellite dish." "Now he switches between channels." "Sometimes he catches you." "You look the same as before." "You haven't changed." "But the world has." "I'm glad you're a success." "Marek?" "Where to?" "l'll be right back." "Let's have it out strait." "I don't wear a wedding band." "Business, you know." "I make balloons." "l don't complain." "Girls!" "Balloons..." " Get ready." "We'll need a refill." " Of the cream." "Why are you so quiet?" "l'm talking the whole time." "I know all of you." "Everybody envies you here." "Fuck off!" "What?" "Pour." "And the ducks quack-quack-quack..." "And the cow... I looked into the eyes of an actor from Warsaw." "Don't complain." "Come here!" "Don't sweat it!" "This is Martha." "Leave a massage after the beep." "Marek!" "I'm done." "I've got my own." "You've left me." "You've fled." ""The most important thing is to be a chief!"" "Pride!" "I don't have any pride?" "Really!" "I don't have any pride?" "Dear God, and now what?" "No!" "Will you marry me?" "Long or short answer?" "Short." "I'll think about it." "There is a time in a man's life that although he didn't die he is born anew." "It's a good time." "The best." "Unless you are not you." "I won't need them any more." "Did you say something?" "Rest."