The Paths of Freedom (film)

Synopsis

In 1940 , a group of seven prisoners decided to escape from a Siberian labor camp . For these men from all walks of life, escaping from this hell will be just the beginning of the adventure.

Together, they will travel more than 6,000 kilometers through the frozen Siberian tundra , the plains of Mongolia , the furnaces of the Gobi desert and the peaks of the Himalayas. The India – then under British control – is the ultimate goal. Some will stop along the way, others will not survive the trials.

But the road is long, the meetings risky, the physical conditions appalling, and each has its secrets.

Technical sheet

• French title: Les Chemins de la liberté
• Original title: The Way Back
• Director: Peter Weir
• Screenplay: Peter Weir and Keith R. Clarke , from the book At a forced march ( The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom ) by Slavomir Rawicz
• Art Director: Aziz Rafiq
• Sets: John Stoddart
• Costumes: Wendy Stites
• Photography: Russell Boyd
• Editing: Lee Smith
• Music: Burkhard von Dallwitz
• Production: Mohamed Khalaf Al-Mazrouei , Tobin Armbrust , Ed Borgerding , Alexander Yves Brunner , Keith R. Clarke , Guy East , Jake Eberts , Duncan Henderson , Adam Leipzig , Joni Levin , Simon Oakes , John Ptak , Scott Rudin , Jonathan Schwartz , Roee Sharon , Nigel Sinclair , Peter Weir
• Production Companies: Exclusive Films, National Geographic Films, Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ, Monolith Films, On the Road, Point Blank Productions, Polish Film Institute
• Distribution: Newmarket Films , Metropolitan Filmexport
• Country of origin: United States , co – production: United Arab Emirates and Poland
• Original languages: English , Russian , Polish
• Format: colors – 2.35: 1 – Dolby Digital – 35 mm
• Genre: adventure
• Duration: 134 minutes
• Release dates ² :

 United States : September 3 , 2010 ( Telluride Film Festival )

 United States : December 29 , 2010 ( limited release in Los Angeles )

 United States , Canada :  January 21 , 2011

 Belgium , France :  January 26 , 2011

Distribution

• Jim Sturgess (VF: Damien Ferrette , VQ: Philippe Martin ) : Janusz “Pakhan”
• Ed Harris (VF: Georges Claisse , VQ: Eric Gaudry ) : “Mr. Smith”
• Saoirse Ronan (VF: Joséphine Ropion, VQ: Mylene Saint-Sauveur ) : Irena
• Colin Farrell (VF: Boris Rehlinger , VQ: Martin Watier ) : Valka, the “urki”
• Mark Strong (VF: Eric Herson-Macarel , VQ: Marc-André Bélanger ) : Khabarov
• Gustaf Skarsgård (VF: Laurent Lederer , VQ: Alexandre Fortin ) : Voss, Latvian
• Alexandru Potocean (VQ: Frédéric Paquet) Tomasz
• Dragos Bucur (VF: Miglen Mirtchev , VQ: Hugolin Chevrette ) : Zoran
• Sebastian Urzendowsky : Kazik
• Zahary Baharov : interrogator
• Sally Edwards : Janusz’s wife, 1939
• Igor Gnezdilov : Bohdan
• Dejan Angelov : Andrei
• Stanislav Pishtalov : Commander
• Mariy Grigorov : Lazar
• Nikolay Stanoev : Yuri
• Stefan Shterev : cook
• Yordan Bikov: garbage man
• Ruslan Kupenov : garbage man
• Nikolay Mutafchiev : guard
• Valentin Ganev : guard
• Anton Trendafilov : steam man
• Pearce Quigley : the teacher
• Sattar Dikambayev : Mongolian rider
• Termirkhan Tursingaliev : young Mongolian rider
• An-Zung Le : Shepherd
• Hal Yamanouchi : official

Production

Filming Locations

• Bulgaria ³ : New Boyana Film Studios (Бояна Филм) in Sofia ⁴ , Vakarel
• India : Darjeeling
• Morocco : Erfoud , Ouarzazate
• Australia : Sydney

Box office

•  Worldwide : $ 20,348,249 
•  United States :$2,701,859
•  France :  $ 7,404,457 (857,115 admissions)
• International: $ 17,646,390

It was in France that the film had its best reception, receiving good reviews from the press and the public ⁵ .

External links

• ( The ) Paths of Freedom [ archive ] on the Internet Movie Database
• The Paths of Freedom [ archive ] on Allociné

Notes and references