The first sequence is an interrogation of Janusz (Jim Sturgess), a Polish POW, by a Soviet officer. Janusz refuses to confess to the allegations that he is a spy, but the evidence supplied by his wife (who had been pressed to testify via the Soviet Torture) results in Janusz 'sentence to the Gulag for 20 years. At the Siberian camp he meets the men with the ultimate escape. Included are Mr Smith (Ed Harris), Valka (Colin Farrell), a hardened Russian criminal, and Khabarov (Mark Strong), an actor with escape of visionary methods. Khabarov quickly befriends Janusz and confides in his proposed escape plan, which targets the south Siberian border, passing Lake Baikal. Besides lacking Janusz 'resolve, Mr Smith joins him in the escape, along with Valka and four other men. During their escape a severe snowstorm, barely managing to survive the first night, Janusz navigates through the harsh forests through the Siberian / Mongolian border.
When they reach Lake Baikal, they meet up with a young girl named Irena (Saoirse Ronan), who tells them she had escaped from a collective farm outside Warsaw, and that the Russians had murdered her parents. This story is falsified by Mr Smith, but later revealed to be an even sadder tale. She is warmly welcomed to the group, and matches the determination and stamina of the men. After Valka leaves the party at the Mongolian border, the six remaining continue to the Ulaanbaatar, only to discover that Mongolia is also under Communist rule. Janusz decides that they should pass through the Gobi Desert and scale the Himalayas to reach friendly territory in India. This seemingly impossible task is willingly agreed by everyone and they set out. We know from opening texts that only three of the men make it to India, so it is inevitable that they begin to fall one by one. Crossing the seemingly endless plains of blisters and sunstroke with the weakened they become, and in a grueling display of human survival, reach freedom.
The men (and girl) face the most basic worries of getting lost and running out of water. With their trekking, the frozen landscapes across them as well as the never-ending deserts, as a group, inevitably suffer deaths. Rather than their torturing predicament and frayed optimism, their human spirit perseveres. The obligatory specks-on-the-horizon shots are the sweeping and isolation of the sense of helplessness they suffer and, with the two-hour run time, they feel like they are on their journey.
MY RATING 7.5/10
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