The Way Back

I don’t remember hearing about this before I saw the trailer at a theater, I think attached to Black Swan or something, which is strange considering both Colin Farrell and Ed Harris have major roles. Maybe I just passed it over. Anyway, it’s about a group of men who escaped from a Siberian forced-labor camp during Stalin’s control of the Soviet empire. In the second scene of the film, a guard tells the prisoners that it is not the guns or walls that keeps them prisoners, but Siberia itself; it’s not exactly a forgiving landscape. It’s always cold, usually snowing, there’s not much in the way of civilization, and the people who do manage to stay alive would probably report any escapees anyway. Still, our wrongly-accused protagonist thinks it can be done and gathers a small group to brave the wastelands in search of freedom.

From then on it’s a story of survival and camaraderie in pretty much every sort of environment there is; frigid tundra, snowy peaks, wetlands, deserts, more peaks, and mosquito-infested byways, all presented quite attractively, except for the part where it’s often killing the characters. They’re a pretty neat group of people; an American, some Polish, Russian, and others. A Russian girl claiming to be Polish in order to endear herself joins the group partway through, bringing more of a family vibe to the team. They mostly speak English but it’s not like it’s just an alternative to subtitles; more like it’s a universal tongue, although I kind of doubt that it was the primary language in the real-life situation on which the story is based.

The journey starts in Siberia and ends in India, crossing all of the mentioned environments in Russia, Mongolia, China, and the Himalayas. It’s all on foot. Not everyone survives, unsurprisingly. It doesn’t quite hit the moral outrage-button as much as Schindler’s List or anything but it’s still a very respectful and pretty chilling look at the effects of Communism; of course that’s not at all the main focus. It’s a story about some people who want very much to live. I think it’s quite effective.

I think I’ve seen enough based-on-fact movies for the time being now. Bring on the fiction.