The Way Back is a 2010 drama film about a group of prisoners who escape from a Siberian Gulag camp during World War II. The film is directed by Peter Weir from a screenplay also by Weir and Keith Clarke, inspired by The Long Walk (1955), a book by Sławomir Rawicz, a Polish POW in the Soviet Gulag. It stars Jim Sturgess as Janusz, Colin Farrell as Valka, Ed Harris as Mr. Smith, and Saoirse Ronan as Irena, with Alexandru Potocean as Tomasz, Sebastian Urzendowsky as Kazik, Gustaf Skarsgård as Voss, Dragoş Bucur as Zoran, and Mark Strong as Khabarov. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Makeup.
Director: Peter Weir
Writers: Peter Weir (screenplay), Keith R. Clarke (screenplay), and 1 more credit
Stars: Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris and Colin Farrell
Directed by six-time Academy Award (R) 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 (R) nominee
Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, The Lovely Bones) and Mark Strong (Body of
Lies, RocknRolla) co-star. Written by Weir and Keith Clarke, the film
is Peter's first since 2003's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the
World. It is inspired by the acclaimed book The Long Walk: The True
Story of a Trek to Freedom, as well as first-person accounts and
anecdotes as told to, and researched by Weir and executive producer
Clarke. Produced by Joni Levin, Peter Weir, Duncan Henderson (Master
and Commander: The Far Side of the World) and Nigel Sinclair
(Terminator 3: Salvation), THE WAY BACK is an Exclusive Media Group,
National Geographic Entertainment and ImageNation Abu Dhabi
presentation and an Exclusive Films production. Keith Clarke, John
Ptak, Guy East, Simon Oakes, Tobin Armbrust, Jake Eberts, Edward
Borgerding, Mohamed Khalaf, Adam Leipzig, Scott Rudin and Jonathan
Schwartz are Executive Producers. The film's Co-Producer is Roee Sharon
Peled and Co-Executive Producer is Alex Brunner. Weir has assembled an
accomplished group of filmmakers with whom he has previously
collaborated, including Academy Award (R) winning Director of
Photography Russell Boyd (Master and Commander, The Year of Living
Dangerously, Gallipoli), Film Editor Lee Smith (Master and Commander,
as well as The Dark Knight, for which he received an Academy Award (R)
nomination), Production Designer John Stoddart (Fearless, The Mosquito
Coast) and Costume Designer Wendy Stites, Oscar (R) nominated for
Master and Commander and with credits on nine Weir films.
