The Way Back (2010)

When it's over, The Way Back discusses the crimes of the Soviet system the way many other films have documented the crimes of the Nazis during the early 1940's.  Peter Weir makes a successful return to the director's chair after a long hiatus (Master and Commander was his film last in 2003) to bring this true story about a band of prisoners who escape from a Siberian gulag and who make their way to freedom on foot to India by crossing through the Sahara Desert and the Himalayas.  Weir uses beautiful, but harsh, landscapes and unforgiving weather as characters in the film, which the escapees must struggle through in order to survive and reach freedom.  Like most films about survival, not everyone survives, and it was the small stories about life and death along the journey that made the film captivating and reinforced the power of the human spirit.  A great international cast included: Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell, Mark Strong, Saorise Ronan, Gustaf Skarsgard, Dragos Bucur, and Alexandru Potocean. 

My rating: 4 out of 5