The Way Back
| The Way Back | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Peter Weir |
| Produced by | Peter Weir Joni Levin Duncan Henderson Nigel Sinclair Scott Rudin |
| Screenplay by | Peter Weir Keith Clarke |
| Based on |
The Long Walk by Sławomir Rawicz |
| Starring |
Jim Sturgess Ed Harris Saoirse Ronan Colin Farrell |
| Music by | Burkhard Dallwitz |
| Cinematography | Russell Boyd |
| Edited by | Lee Smith |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by |
Newmarket Films Exclusive Film Distribution Meteor Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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133 minutes |
| Language |
English Russian |
| Budget | $30 million |
| Box office | $20,348,249 |
The Way Back is a 2010 survival drama film directed by Peter Weir, from a screenplay by Weir and Keith Clarke. The film is inspired by The Long Walk (1956), the memoir by former Polish prisoner of war Sławomir Rawicz, who escaped from a Soviet Gulag and walked 4,000 miles to freedom in World War II. The film stars Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, and Saoirse Ronan, with Alexandru Potocean, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Gustaf Skarsgård, Dragoş Bucur and Mark Strong.
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup.
During World War II, after the Soviet invasion of Poland, young Polish army officer Janusz Wieszczek (Jim Sturgess) is held as a POW and interrogated by the NKVD. The Soviets, unable to get him to say he is a spy, take his wife into custody; from her they extort a statement condemning him. He is sentenced to 20 years in a Gulag labour camp deep in Siberia.
There he meets those with whom he later plans an escape: Mr. Smith (Ed Harris), an American engineer; Khabarov (Mark Strong), an actor; Valka (Colin Farrell), a hardened Russian criminal; Tomasz (), a Polish artist; Voss (Gustaf Skarsgård), a Latvian priest; Kazik (Sebastian Urzendowsky), a Pole suffering from night blindness; and Zoran (Dragoş Bucur), a Yugoslavian accountant. Khabarov secretly tells Janusz that he is planning to escape south to Mongolia, passing Lake Baikal. Smith cautions Janusz that it is Khabarov's way to discuss escape plans with newcomers, to maintain his morale, but nothing will come of it. At times Janusz seems to hallucinate the front door of a country home and adjoining window ledge, which holds plants and a rock he attempts to reach for. Janusz follows through with the escape with Smith, Valka, Voss, Tomasz, Zoran and Kazik during a severe snowstorm that covers their tracks.
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Wikipedia