"We've All Been There."
Directed by Peter WeirProduced 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
Production company: National Geographic Films, Spitfire Pictures, Imagenation Abu Dhabi, Film Fund Luxembourg
Distributed by Newmarket Films, Exclusive Film Distribution, Meteor Pictures
Release date: 26 November 2010 (Norway)
Country: Bulgaria, India, Morocco, Australia
Budget: $30 million
Box office: $20,348,249
"The Way Back" is an adventure drama history film directed by Peter Weir abd inspired by "The Long Walk" (1956), the memoir by former Polish POW Sławomir Rawicz, who escaped from a Soviet Gulag. During World War II, after the Soviet invasion of Poland, young Polish military officer Janusz Wieszczek is held as a POW and interrogated by the NKVD. The Soviets, unable to get him to say he is a spy, take into custody his wife from whom they extort a statement condemning him. He is sentenced to 20 years in a Gulag labour camp deep in Siberia.There Janusz meets those with whom he later plans an escape: an American engineer Mr. Smith, an actor Khabarov, a hardened Russian criminal Valka, a Polish artist Tomasz, a Latvian priest Voss, a Pole suffering from night blindness Kazik and a Yugoslavian accountant Zoran. Khabarov secretly tells Janusz that he is planning to escape south to Mongolia, passing Lake Baikal. Mr. 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 adjoing window ledge, which holds plants and a rock he attempts to reach for. Janusz follows through with the escape with Mr. Smith, Valka, Voss, Tomasz, Zoran, and Kazik during a severe snowstorm that covers their tracks. However, will all of them get home?
