The Way Back

THE WAY BACK

Look at those poor men.

They've got night blindness.

I saw it in the transit camp.

It's vitamin deficiency from starvation.

Here, here.

You planning on surviving on half rations, son?

Look, he's an old man.

I'm an old man.

I'll be alive in the morning. He won't.

Kindness.

That can kill you here.

He's American.

In Here? How?

Stalin hates foreigners,

and that includes Poles.

You're Polish, no?

Uh-huh.

I like you Poles.

Your burning sense of injustice,

the yearning for freedom.

Khabarov-- Andrei Timofeyevich.

Weiszczek-- Janusz.

Your charge, may I ask, Janusz?

58-10.

A spy.

That's what they told me.

Ten years?

No. 20.

58-14. Sabotage. Ten years.

And you were on Soviet side of line,

and they arrest you. They accuse you of spying.

Torture you, huh?

Did you sign confession?

No.

No, I wouldn't sign,

so they--they tortured someone else.

Forgive me.

I was actor.

Moving pictures.

In my last picture, I played aristocrat.

They arrested me when the film was released.

Why?

it was claimed

I was elevating the status of the old nobility.

So you got ten years for a performance in a film.

I've had better notices.

Nyet.

The Urki.

Do you know who these are?

Professional criminals.

Murderers and thieves.

Don't stare at them.

The guards let them run things in here,

and they are to be feared.

Then why would they let them run things?

Because they are byproduct of bourgeois society

and so friends of people.

We are political prisoners and so enemies of people.

The Soviet Union has become one vast prison.

Slave labor.

They are from far reaches of Soviet Empire,

all caught up in same net.

And, uh, do any of them wriggle out of the net?

No, Janusz. You must be more careful.

Stalin has eyes and ears everywhere,

even in here.

If you are not more careful,

you will die after one year.

If not literally,

then spirit.

And how long have you been in here?

Eleven months and 29 days.

You do for me.

You want me to draw you?

No. Not me.

Lice?

Eating me alive.

For that I have old folk remedy. Come.

The mine.

They blast at night.

What are you doing?

We must be quick.

Or this will not be here in the morning.

You're going to leave it here overnight? Why?

You'll see.

It can be done.

I know a way through the wire.

How?

Lazar, my associate,

he is overseer of construction.

He showed me.

If you ever escape the camps,

and I've been waiting so long for someone like you,

someone with the strength,

the will to see it through.

But to go where?

I mean, we can't go west.

I mean, apart from the Germans, there's the Soviets.

And east, all Soviet right to the Pacific.

No, no, no, no.

North. Have to be-- have to be south.

Correct.

But do you know where we are? I mean, exactly?

I beileve we are about 500 kilometers north of Lake Baikal.

This is the lake.

Camp is here.

And the border is here.

We could follow the edge of the lake here.

That runs due south.

Exactly. Then we cross the Trans-Siberian Railway

to the Mongolian border and freedom.

Spring is already upon us.

We will have to wait till autumn.

No. Why wait?

Why?

Because it is a thousand kilometers to the border, maybe more.

We need careful planning. We need to stockpile food.

I've already begun trading, dealing.

You must do the same.

And in autumn, the weather is more predictable.

We can use the new snow to cover our tracks.

And we bring my friends.

Your friends? You trust them?

Of course.

They won't all survive.

But they will die free men.

Free.

That's a really brave man!

First we need big branches!

One on each side and then one on the back!

Help me, Kazik.

These down there, put it there on the branch.

Yes, yes.

Follow me. We'll both go like this.

What?

Good.

Yes.Put it there.

Zoran! Your blanket!

For a wind break.

Get in. Come on.

Come!

Please come with us! We have shelter!

I am Zoran, Yugoslav. That's Janusz.

And he's Kazik.

Horodinsky.

They are Polish.

Voss. I'm Latvian.

It's a League of Nations.

And you are?

Smith.

And your first name.

Mister.

Mr. Smith.

That's right.

Might as well have shot us yesterday.

We're for the mines.

These collars same as used by ancient Egyptian people.

Yes, but on their horses, probably.

No. No, no, no. Same for people.

How do you know?

I was professor of Egyptology,

Leningrad University.

Are you crazy? They'll shoot you.

I've got to get out of here.

I have to get back.

I have to get back.

It can be done.

What can be done?

He knows a way through the wire.

He has a plan.

Shh. Who has a plan?

His name is Khabarov.

The actor.

Do you know him?

He has no intention of escaping.

What do you mean?

He's a liar.

He's been here for years.

Seeks out new arrivals.

Me, when I first came here.