The Way Back (2010) HD

1939. Janusz, a lieutenant in the Polish army, is accused of espionage and sentenced to 20 years of forced labor in a Siberian gulag. While in prison, he organizes an escape from the gulag together with six other prisoners: in 1941, they embark on a desperate escape for thousands of kilometers, crossing the Trans-Siberian railway and the Gobi desert, suffering hunger, cold and disease, until they reach India in 1942. Not all the fugitives manage to complete the journey: Valka, a Russian criminal, abandons the group shortly before the border crossing between the Soviet Union and Mongolia, deciding to remain in his native land; Irena dies of dehydration in the desert, and the same fate will later befall Tomasz, a highly talented painter. Mr. Smith, on the other hand, once he arrives in Lhasa, decides to continue on his own way and reach a US base, while Janusz and two other companions decide to continue and cross the Himalayan chain, reaching India. The final scene of the film shows Janusz, now elderly, returning to his wife in Poland, only after the collapse of communism.