awesome scenery

Rating: 9/10 (21 January 2011)

I enjoyed the film, though agreed with other reviewers that it could have been better edited. The main thing I loved about this movie was the way that it showed the brutality of the Stalin regime and how big events have an impact on real people. Those who died nameless and unremembered and unmourned deaths were 'rescued' by this film. I liked way its showed there was respect but clearly not friendship between the men - but who could not communicate with each other about themselves. The saddest part of the story was the young girl who joined them on the trek and died before reaching safety and the critical role she played holding the group together. Colin Farrel was good and his role neatly illustrated the hold that Stalin has on the Russian people, who no matter how abused - still saw him as a hero. It reminds us behind the numbers of deaths that occurred in WW2 there were real people with real stories, just like us, who had to endure much worse than those in the west and did not enjoy a peace dividend.
I loved the scenes in Siberia with the flies (midges in Scotland and Mossies in Spain always find me and I know how they felt).
The great trick that the director pulled off was the subtly contrast the claustrophobia of the camp and the work parties with the epic distances and landscape that they had to cross to reach safety.