“Controversy does surround the question of whether the man who wrote the book was on the whole walk,” says director Peter Weir, the man behind Master And Commander, Witness and Gallipoli.
“He was certainly a prisoner, so I decided to fictionalise it, change the title, re-name the characters and then draw on the experiences of others who’d been in the gulags.”
The book first appeared in 1956 and no one has since found information to prove or disprove whether the author, Slavomir Rawicz's account really happened.
Getting out of the camp wasn’t difficult at all, but it was surviving in the terrain that came after those walls that kept everyone together, no-one dared make a run for it, it almost seemed impossible.
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| DIRECTOR: PETER WEIR |
Director Peter Weir says the author was definitely a prisoner
Colin Farrell, Ed Harris and 16-year-old Saoirse Ronan also star in the film which highlights Stalin's brutal prison regime.
“It’s good to have a female presence in the group and bring a certain kind of energy to the group,” says Ronan, who plays an orphan who the prisoners stumble across.
“Before that it was all just blokes! I only shot in Bulgaria and Morocco – these guys shot in India as well which looks amazing by the way, it was very beautiful.”
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