The Way Back

THE WAY BACK (12)

D: Peter Weir

Newmarket/National Geographic/Spitfire/Imagenation Abu Dhabi (Peter Weir, Joni Levin, Duncan Henderson, Nigel Sinclair & Scott Rudin)

US/Poland/UAE 2010

133 mins

Drama/Adventure/War

W: Peter Weir & Keith Clarke [based on the book "The Long Walk" by Sławomir Rawicz]

DP: Russell Boyd

Ed: Lee Smith

Mus: Burkhard Dallwitz

Jim Sturgess (Janusz Wieszczek), Ed Harris (Mr. Smith), Colin Farrell (Valka), Saoirse Ronan (Irena Zielinska), Dragos Bucur (Zoran)

The Way Back is a breathtaking survivalist tale, inspired by the true events detailed in Slawomir Rawicz's book 'The Long Walk', where a group of Polish and Russian refugees escaped from a Siberian POW camp and embarked on a 4,000 mile walk to freedom in India.

Some of the story has been given the Hollywood treatment, but it is mostly kept low-key and brutally realistic by Peter Weir's direction.

One tiny gripe is that the film opens with captions stating that the film details the true story of three men who survived the journey, which takes away some of the tension as their plight becomes more and more desperate.

The film received a sole Oscar nomination (for makeup), and arguably deserved a lot more recognition.

Not to be confused with "The Way Way Back" (2013)

7/10