Taglines: Their escape was just the beginning.
In 1941, three men attempt to flee communist Russia, escaping a Siberian gulag. The film tells their story and that of four others who escaped with them and a teenage girl who joins them in flight. The group’s natural leader is Janusz, a Pole condemned by accusations secured by torturing his wife, spent much of his youth outdoors, and knows how to live in the wild. They escape under cover of a snowstorm: a cynical American, a Russian thug, a comedic accountant, a pastry chef who draws, a priest, and a Pole with night blindness. They face freezing nights, lack of food and water, mosquitoes, an endless desert, the Himalayas, as well as many moral and ethical dilemmas throughout the journey towards freedom.
Inspired by Slavomir Rawicz’s acclaimed novel, “The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom” as well as other real life accounts, six time Oscar nominated director Peter Weir’s (“Witness”, “Master And Commander”, & “Dead Poet’s Society”) “The Way Back” is a remarkable adventure story chronicling the escape of a small group of multi-national prisoners from a Siberian gulag in 1940 and their epic life affirming journey over thousands of miles across five hostile countries.
Directed by six-time Academy Award nominee Peter Weir, The Way Back is an epic story of survival, solidarity and indomitable human will. Shot in Bulgaria, Morocco and India, the film stars Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe, The Other Boleyn Girl), Ed Harris (Appaloosa) and Colin Farrell (In Bruges) as prisoners of a Soviet Union labor camp, who, along with four others, flee their Siberian Gulag and begin a treacherous journey across thousands of miles of hostile terrain. Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, The Lovely Bones) and Mark Strong (Body of Lies, RocknRolla) co-star.
The Way Back (2010)
Directed by: Peter Weir
Starring: Colin Farrell, Mark Strong, Saoirse Ronan, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, Gustaf Skarsgård, Zachary Baharov, Alexandru Potocean, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Dragos Bucur, Sally Brunski
Screenplay by: Slavomir Rawicz, Peter Weir
Production Design by: John Stoddart
Cinematography by: Russell Boyd
Film Editing by: Lee Smith
Costume Design by: Wendy Stites
Set Decoration by: Goro Deyanov
Art Direction by: Kes Bonnet
Music by: Burkhard von Dallwitz
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violent content, depiction of physical hardships, a nude image and brief strong language.
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release: December 29, 2010