Simon Dillon reviews the film

Peter Weir's first film in seven years is based on The Long Walk, a memoir by Slavomir Rawicz detailing an escape from a gulag in Stalinist Russia in 1940. A group of escapees trekked four thousand miles through Siberian forests, across the Gobi desert and over the Himalayas until they reached India. It is a remarkable true story of survival and, if you'll forgive the cliche, the triumph of the human spirit.

Except it isn't true. Or at least, Rawicz almost certainly didn't make the famous walk he described in his book, as a documentary that came out whilst this film was in production claims he was released in a prisoner exchange in 1942. But others claim Rawicz heard the story from someone who did make the walk. Either way, there is some doubt as to the factual veracity of the tale. Oddly, the elements one would be most likely to question (the commercially convenient presence of an American prisoner, the girl who joins the group along the way) are all parts of the story that are most likely to be true. And even if they aren't, in one sense who cares? Whether Rawicz made the actual journey or not, The Way Back is riveting.

As far as I'm concerned, Peter Weir is the single most underrated working director in the world. Notoriously choosy with his projects and completely uncompromising in his refusal to work within the Hollywood mainstream, the Australian director has delivered an astonishing body of work. Ranging from early masterpieces like Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave and Gallipoli, to well known classics like Witness, Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, to little seen gems like The Mosquito Coast and Fearless, Weir is a completely unique auteur who has created some of the most memorable images and scenes in cinema history. Think of the barn raising sequence in Witness; of the boat crashing into the sky in The Truman Show; the schoolboys standing on their desks in Dead Poets Society; or the schoolgirls climbing Hanging Rock in Picnic at Hanging Rock. Yet in spite of this, he has never won an Oscar (he ought to have won at least three times).

Those familiar with Weir's back catalogue will expect nothing less than for him to make superb use of the landscape and The Way Back is no exception. He really makes the viewer feel the bitter cold of the Siberian forests and the blistering heat of the Gobi desert. The danger of the journey and the pain of every step is up there onscreen, and the harsh locations also underscore Weir's familar themes of alienation and cultural dislocation.

Weir also has a reputation for coaxing career best performances from his leads, and whilst Ed Harris has been this good before (especially as Christoff in Weir's The Truman Show), Colin Farrell is unquestionably better than he has ever been as Valka, a dangerous violent criminal mixing with the political prisoners who have fled the gulag. Most of the information about the characters backgrounds is discovered later by the girl they meet during the journey, Irinei (Saoirse Ronan), since the prisoners learnt to say as little as possible to one another whilst in captivity in order to survive and they have not broken this habit. In fact, as Ed Harris' character "Mr Smith" puts it early in the film, kindness will get you killed.

Weir spends the entire film disproving what "Mr Smith" says, as it is kindness that ensures that at least some of them make it through the journey alive. The Way Back is ultimately a profoundly moving, life-affirming story that demonstrates how the very best in human nature can sometimes manifest in the very worst of circumstances. It is also a timely reminder of the recent communist dictatorships that destroyed the lives of millions. Regardless of whether or not the story is true, it asks a powerful question: is it worth journeying four thousand miles on foot enduring starvation and thirst, risking death, for freedom? The answer this film gives is an emphatic yes. Most movingly of all, the central character Janusz (Jim Sturgess), simply wants to return and find his wife again, so he can tell her he forgives her, since she was tortured into falsely accusing him of spying.

There are even some surprising moments of humour along the way. Weir is not above a tastes-like-chicken joke after the protagonists kill and eat a snake. One prisoner in the gulag is an actor who played an aristocrat in a manner that displeased the authorities. When another prisoner learns this, he comments: "they sent you to prison for a performance in a film!?"

In short, The Way Back is an absorbing, fascinating and emotional film for anyone who enjoys intelligent, grown-up cinema.