A road movie without the road

Rating: Null/10 (11 August 2011)

In 1955, a Polish army officer who was captured by the Russians in 1939 and sent to a prison camp in Siberia wrote "The Long Walk", an account of how he (Slavomir Rawicz) escaped the gulag with six others and managed to travel by foot across Siberia, Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, Tibet and the Himalayas before the surviving members reached India in 1941 - a staggering journey of some 4,000 miles. Did he personally do it? Almost certainly, no. Did anyone do it? Probably not. Does it matter? For the purposes of this film which tells that story, no. It is a cracking tale and Australian director Peter Weir has chosen to refer to Rawicz's book as a novel.
Weir is a terrific movie-maker who has not directed a film for seven years ("Master And Commander") and here he allies a great adventure with striking visuals and accomplished acting. The photography is by Russell Boyd and the shooting was done in Bulgaria, Morocco and India. The international ensemble of actors includes British Jim Sturgess as the Polish officer Janusz, Romanian Dragos Bucur as Yugoslav accountant Bucur, American Ed Harris as the enigmatic Mr Smith, Irish Colin Farrel as psychopathic Russian convict Valka, and Irish Saoirse Ronan as the Polish teenager Irena.
This may not be Weir's best work (that might be "Witness"), but this road movie without the road is well worth you joining for the stroll.