"THE WAY BACK by Ajeesh Vijayan" "[speaking Russian]" "[sobbing]" "[door opeans] [door closes]" "[man shouts in Russian] [men respond in Russian]" "[man speaks Russian]" "[in Russian]" "[Russian chatter]" "[speaking Russian]" "(male prisoner) Look at those poor men." "They've got night blindness." "I saw it in the transit camp." "It's vitamin deficiency from starvation." "[groan]" "[whimpering]" "Here, here." "[gasping]" "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." "[speaking Russian]" "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." "[speaking Russian]" "[inmates laugh]" "[man shouting in distance]" "[man shouting in Russian]" "[chatter]" "You do for me." "You want me to draw you?" "No." "Not me." "[distant voice speaking Russian]" "Lice?" "Eating me alive." "For that I have old folk remedy." "Come." "[explosion in distance]" "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." "[chatter in distance]" "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." "[clanging]" "[man speaking Russian]" "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." "[thunderous crashing] [shouting, coughing]" "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." "[men shouting in Russian]" "[grunting screaming]" "[heavy breathing] [gasping]" "[shouting]" "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." "[man shouting in Russian] [gasping]" "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." "He just likes to talk about escape." "I've known others like him." "Why should I believe you?" "Nothing is for nothing in the camps." "From you he gets your energy, your spirit." "You feed his dream of escape." "You help keep him alive." "He's nothing but a leech." "You are a cold bastard, Mister." "I'm still alive, that's all I know." "But I won't be in another six months, and neither will you." "Not here." "Not in these mines." "But if you are serious-- really serious about making a run for it" "I'm with you." "I thought you were a loner." "It can't be done alone." "Besides, you have a--a weakness." "You could be useful to me." "And what is that?" "Kindness." "If anything happens to me," "I'm counting on you carrying me." "[whistling of wind]" "[Janusz, whispering] Khabarov." "Khabarov, come." "What?" "Come with me." "Now." "What is it?" "What?" "What?" "Come." "Look at this." "Look at this." "We can go." "We can go tonight." "The storm will cover our tracks." "No, no, no." "What are you talking about?" "It's a passing storm!" "No, it's enough." "Janusz, that is impossible." "We need" " We need detailed preparation, we need plans, we need maps." "No, no, the timing will never be perfect." "Look, they won't expect it now." "Are you crazy?" "What about the distances, huh?" "It's, it's a thousand kilometers, and we need food." "Plenty of food." "But, but we have food." "You have food." "Look, the American is with us." "We've been trading, just like you said." "How long will that last?" "Look, I've spent half my life" "In the woods and mountains." "We can live off the land." "You don't understand." "You are too young." "It cannot be done." "What else is there?" "You hear me?" "To stay here and die?" "It cannot be done." "Andrei!" "How do we get through that wire?" "I don't know what you are talking about." "Your friend Lazar" "I mean, he knows, doesn't he?" "You told me that." "Piss off now." "[grunt]" "You can't see, can you?" "Please don't leave me behind." "Promise me, Andrejs." "I can hold onto your shoulder by night." "I can--I can see shapes." "By day I can see just fine." "I won't hold you up." "Please don't tell the others." "In here, I die." "[speaking Russian]" "Swiss." "[hawking, spitting, coughing]" "There are no secrets here." "What do you want?" "The game goes against me." "Small debt, they take fingers." "Big debt, they take head." "Me, big debt." "But I never gamble my Wolf." "In forest, you need knife, and I need miracle." "Get me out of here." "[clanging]" "[clanging] [short metallic screech]" "[dogs barking, men shouting] [alarm blaring]" "Come on!" "Come on!" "Look!" "keep going." "Keep going!" "We must keep going!" "Get up!" "Get up!" "Activity, or we die right now." "You know how fast the dogs are." "Run, damn you!" "Mister, come on, look at me." "Is it time for me to carry you?" "Come on." "Come on." "Come on!" "Janusz, we can't see anything!" "The snow is blinding us!" "Janusz!" "(Janusz) I need your knife!" "Give me the knife!" "Your knife!" "Janusz, we must take shelter!" "We can't go on!" "Don't you see?" "This is perfect!" "They'll never find us like this." "Never!" "[deep silence]" "You stare at me like snake at rabbit." "He teach me English." "Speak good, huh?" "Bread for words, wasn't it, cowboy?" "How far have we come?" "Maybe 20, 30 kilometers." "That's all?" "Less, if we've been going in circles like chicken without head." "All right, let's see what we have." "Everyone, come on." "We share everything." "And you?" "What?" "Do you have?" "And that coat." "It's not your coat." "That is Khabarov's coat." "Yes, he gave me." "And..." "Huh?" "Huh?" "[chuckling]" "See?" "He was going to inform." "Don't worry." "I talk to him." "Everything okay." "(Sm!" "th) You've made a bargain with the devil." "You realize that?" "Do you have a knife?" "For direction he uses grass and the mosses." "What's that?" "I swear to God he better know what he's doing." "You should be grateful you're here at all." "Grateful is for dogs." "[howling in distance]" "What" " What's that?" "Woives." "It's only wolves." "Only wolves." "South." "To Lake Baikal." "You are the Pakhan." "Am I?" "What is a Pakhan?" "Boss of Urki." "We are not criminals." "We are escaping from criminals." "I have been watching you." "And I swear to God you win my respect with your sticks and pine cones." "I'll come between you and death." "So you want to be my bodyguard?" "It's the Urka way." "You have me, and you have the Wolf." "Huh?" "Janusz, how long till we get to the lake?" "How long?" "Three, four weeks." "Maybe more." "(Janusz) I have us here somewhere." "And down here, the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the border of Mongolia." "[groans]" "Mongolia seems so far away." "Mongolia?" "I go more." "To America." "It's like this-- we have food for another week." "We have no more matches." "But still we have Khabarov's flint." "We need meat." "I can make traps." "We'll be moving too fast to wait for traps." "We find farms, villages, get food there." "Look, there's a bounty on our heads." "Remember that." "We steal it." "At night." "They never know." "We are not thieves." "Then I'll steal it, and I'll eat." "You can watch." "What is that?" "Barbed wire." "He's making a fish-hook." "That's how we will survive." "With fish?" "Uh." "But I don't eat fish." "Then you'll die." "(Kazik) Come on, we need to make a fire." "Come on, lots of wood." "It'll be 40 below tonight." "Tomasz?" "[Tomasz grunts]" "(Janusz) No, no, not too much, not too much." "Kazik?" "Kazik?" "He's still out, looking for wood." "He has night blindness." "Kazik!" "(male voice) Kazik!" "Janusz!" "Janusz!" "[logs ciatter]" "[muttering] [grunt]" "[grunting]" "(Kazik) Professor." "I came from the mine to find you." "I thought I was alone." "I've been walking with you for some time." "I'll-- I'll just sit for a minute." "Not far to go." "We made it." "We really made it." "Isn't that something?" "Lord, take this innocent soul into thy keeping." "Amen." "A free man died here today." "Still, one less mouth to feed." "What?" "[birds calling]" "[gasping]" "[bird crying out loudly]" "[coughing]" "They'll find our bones and your drawings a hundred years from now and say "Look, a fine example of Early Gulag Man."" "[angrily] Shut up with your jokes." "Go and find food like the others do." "You do the shutting up!" "Drawing all day like you're on holiday." "I'm sick." "I cook." "They find food." "What do you ever do?" "Nothing." "But I make you all laugh." "No, not anymore, you don't." "So... who will be first?" "What do you mean, first?" "The first to die." "I think the artist." "But better if it was him, the funny man." "Why better if it's Zoran?" "More soft." "More--tender." "[deep breath]" "Mister only catch little fish now." "We must have meat, or we die here." "You're the Pakhan, you've thought of it." "We all have." "That's why you brought extra people, isn't it?" "For food?" "No, no, no." "We will get more food when we get to Lake Baikal." "There will be plenty of fish there." "You said we would have seen lake a week ago." "Huh?" "We're lost, Pakhan." "[distant low growling]" "[growling continues]" "[low growling and chewing] [growiing] [shouting]" "Raah!" "Yaah!" "[shouting]" "Yaah!" "Yaah!" "Yaah!" "[grunting] [guttural shout]" "Look, if I, uh, if I find the lake," "I will be back in a week." "If I don't, well, you're on your own." "[coughing]" "I know." "Our friend Valka." "Don't let him out of your sight." "Here." "Fresh this morning." "Thank you." "Good luck." "And you." "[birds chirping]" "[thunder rolling]" "[whimpering]" "[groaning]" "Janusz!" "I saw it." "I saw it." "I saw the Lake." "Easy, easy." "Three days from here." "Stones!" "Gather stones!" "Heat them in the fire!" "[birds chirping]" "What is it?" "Psst." "Psst." "Pssst." "Hey." "(Smith) Someone's been following us." "He's behind that dark clump of trees." "If he gives us away, they'll be all over us in no time." "He's right." "We have to do this." "No killing." "No?" "I think you've killed before." "You say too many prayers for an innocent man." "Valka, you go behind in case he makes a run for it." "Go." "Spread out, spread out." "[Janusz whispers] Valka, no." "No!" "[whimpering]" "We--we won't hurt you." "Huh." "A Polka." "Polka?" "What does he want?" "I don't know." "It's a girl." "And she's Polish." "She's been following us for several days." "And what?" "Well, she needs food, you know, protection." "She's been too afraid to approach us until she was sure we weren't Russian." "She wants to travel with us?" "She's on the run, like us." "She'll slow us down." "She said she's escaped from a Russian collective farm." "I know this type-- street gypsies." "There are thousands like that, less use than a dog!" "Pakhan, don't do this." "Huh?" "Oh, come on." "She's starving." "We can barely feed ourselves." "Yeah, maybe it's kinder to leave her." "No, she was sent to us." "We can't leave her." "Janusz, we have no choice." "[birds cawing]" "(Janusz) Hey, hey, hey, hey!" "Hey!" "Hey, hey, hey, hey!" "Stay back." "Stay back." "Careful of the mud." "Easy." "Easy." "Easy." "Valka." "Here you are." "[chatter]" "Find some wood." "[chatter]" "Her name is Irena." "[snoring] [chuckle]" "Is the soap ready?" "Yes." "Ah, good." "Stir." "[laughing]" "Well?" "What's so funny?" "Are you-- you are going to the office this morning?" "[laughing]" "Valka?" "Valka." "Come on." "You're next." "Go, go." "(Zoran) Valka, come on!" "Now take off your shirt." "Why do we do this?" "So we don't look like thieves and robbers." "Head up." "[groaning]" "Now, still." "[grunt]" "Very still, please." "Head up." "[grunt]" "More." "Nyet." "[grunting]" "[men and Irena laugh, chatter]" "You know, I, uh, can't believe she's Polish." "She's, uh, she's educated." "Speaks good English, French." "Is that right?" "You don't like her, do you?" "Speak to Valka about her." "He doesn't even think she's Polish." "Well, I did speak to him." "And the others." "They agree she comes with us." "What, you disagree?" "There's no room for sentimentality, you know that." "Apart from food, she'll slow us down." "[sigh]" "(Janusz) No, it won't take our weight." "We'll have to swim across." "Can you swim?" "Yes, Mister." "You wouldn't lie to me." "I'm not lying, Comrade." "And don't call me Comrade." "Irena, no!" "Here, come on." "[speaking Polish]" "Here, take the food." "Were your parents arrested with you?" "They're dead." "We lived on a farm outside Warsaw." "When the Russians came, they said we were kulaks and exploiting the peasants." "My parents were afraid and hid me in the barn." "I found them later." "I" "I found them face-down in the mud." "They'd been bashed and strangled with barbed wire." "Later, the Russians caught me and sent me to a collective farm." "They were cruel to me." "I ran away." "I had no food." "And then I saw you." "You can't swim, can you?" "What?" "You've never been near the water in your life." "But I got across, didn't I?" "And you followed." "And you said you lived on a farm near Warsaw?" "Yes." "Soviets didn't get that far." "That was German territory." "Your parents weren't murdered, were they?" "You made all that up." "We've all done terrible things to survives." "But don't ever lie to me again." "We've had enough of lies." "[dogs barking in distance] [men shouting distant]" "(Janusz) We have to go around it." "Quicker through it." "No, they have dogs." "If they raise the alarm, then we don't stand a chance." "We need food again, Pakhan." "Look, I know we need food, but we can't go into that town and risk arrest." "We're wasting time." "(Smith) What is it?" "What's wrong?" "Where's Valka?" "He was behind Zoran." "Zoran, weren't you watching him?" "(Zoran) I'm not his keeper." "Damn him." "(Smith) He could turn us in for the bounty." "And risk arrest?" "He's a gambler." "Irena, do you think he would do that?" "He might." "We don't need his knife." "We can make one out of deer bone." "It's an opportunity to get rid of him." "All right, all right." "Come on, let's go." "(Valka) Watch it funny man?" "Hey, hey, hey!" "You want to get us all killed?" "Hmm?" "Hmm?" "Easy, cowboy." "You tear my coat." "Idiot." "Idlot?" "Ha." "Am I?" "Let's see who is idiot." "What?" "Did I kill?" "Yes." "A dog." "Don't believe me, then don't eat." "But you will, won't you, because you want to survive." "I know about survive." "All my life." "And-- it's my birthday." "In Russia, that means we drink." "[Valka sings in Russian]" "[singing in Russian]" "She lived in the streets, like me." "So the story you told us wasn't true." "I thought that story would be more sad and you wouldn't leave me behind." "My parents were Polish Communists." "They took us to live in Soviet Union, to Moscow." "They want to work for the Revolution." "We lived in the Hotel Lux, with lots of foreign Communists." "But they arrested them in 1937." "They said they were spies." "The people pot me in the orphanage." "And my brother, he died." "I was ten years old." "They called me Rykov, but I remembered our Polish name-- Zielinska." "I used to say it every night before I went to sleep." "So you ran away." "Oh." "[gasp] [mosquitoes buzzing]" "[buzzing continues] [speaking Russian]" "[Irena, groaning]" "[light chatter]" "They have no mosquitoes." "What can we do?" "Steal a boat?" "No, it's too risky." "People are going to get ill." "(Janusz) I know." "(Smith) Isn't it strange?" "After all we've faced, these tiny insects might bring us down." "[mosquitoes buzzing] [groaning]" "There it is again." "No mosquitoes!" "Zoran!" "Zoran!" "What's he doing, for God's sake?" "[buzzing continues]" "Mosquito repellent." "So what you say to him?" "Who?" "The mosquito man." "Ah." "I'm an escaped convict who is plagued by mosquitoes." "Yeah, very funny." "No, really, what did you say?" "Come on, man." "[laughter]" "Clown." "(Janusz) Goodbye, Lake Baikal." "Well done." "Mister, did you know Voss is a priest?" "No, I didn't know that." "And Tomasz is a pastry chef, but he wants to be an artist." "You don't say." "And Zoran was on business in Moscow, arrested in Red Square." "He said he was just taking a photo of the Kremlin." "He's an accountant." "Well, I'll be damned." "I never knew a funny accountant." "[laughing]" "Don't you talk to each other?" "In the camps you learn to say as little as possible." "Mr. Smith?" "Working on the Moscow Metro?" "He's an engineer." "His father was Finnish." "Grew up in America, but he could speak Russian." "And why would an American move to Russia, for God's sake?" "The Depression." "His son came with him." "What happened to his son?" "They shot him." "He was 17." "[dogs barking] [loud chatter]" "[whispering] The Mongolian border is on the other side of those tracks-- maybe four, five days away." "Can we cross somewhere else?" "Here, this is the main line." "It's going to be like this everywhere." "He's right." "We wait till tonight." "What?" "Nothing. just looking." "Don't look." "(Zoran) Valka?" "What?" "Why do you have assholes tattooed on your chest?" "I mean, they should be on your ass so you can sit on them every time you take a shit." "You think it's funny?" "They are great men." "Whoa, whoa!" "Valka!" "Valka!" "Don't you know what "Stalin" means, funny man?" "Means Man-of-Steel." "He takes from rich and gives to poor." "Yes, of course he does." "Then he takes both of them and puts them in a Gulag for 25 years." "Watch your eyes, crow bait." "[train whistles in distance]" "Thank you, Mother Russia, for your hospitality, but I will definitely not be coming back." "[chuckling]" "You know, they'll-- they'll catch you." "Yeah." "Prison is okay." "Debt is bad." "But there are many prisons, they don't find me." "What about America?" "Oh." "It's not for me, freedom." "I wouldn't know what to do with it, I swear to God." "So we must say goodbye, my Wolf and me." "You don't need him anymore." "Good luck, Valka." "Goodbye, Janusz." "(Janusz) Look." "See?" "(Irena) Do you think we'll get there by tonight?" "Yes, I think so." "What will we do?" "We will eat." "Yes." "We will sleep." "(Janusz) We made it." "[chatter]" "Mister!" "They're communists." "(Janusz) So it's here too." "This changes everything." "There's nowhere to hide." "(Voss) It's a Buddhist temple." "They might take us in." "They might also be working with the regime." "It's a risk." "What happened here?" "The same as happened in Russia." "Churches closed... priests shot or taken to camps... religion banned." "They came to my church, in Latvia." "Destroyed everything, much like this." "I went back later that night, and there was a lone-- lone guard." "Just a boy." "And I strangled him until his eyes popped right out of his head." "Valka knew somehow." "He knew I'd killed in cold blood." "(Zoran) How far is China?" "I don't know." "Maybe five, six hundred kilometers due south." "600 kilometers?" "Is Chlna free?" "They're fighting the Japs." "I know that much." "After China is Tibet." "We could go to Lhasa, the capital." "[speaking Polish]" "(Voss) What?" "What are you talking about?" "They say we could go beyond Tibet, over the mountains to India." "What mountains?" "The Himalayas." "Join the British Army." "Fight Nazls, then fight the Russians." "Go over the Himalayas?" "How?" "On a magic carpet?" "How?" "We walk." "(Janusz) Careful." "Come on, wake up." "I was in the middle of this beautiful dream." "I was about to eat some salt." "I almost taste it." "I just want to go back to that dream." "It's a very simple recipe." "You just need two sprigs of rosemary and a pinch of nutmeg." "Nutmeg?" "What about the salt?" "No, we'll--we'll get to that." "Now-- add the oil" "Mm-hmm." "and you leave it to marinate while you prepare the chicken." "This is where the salt comes in." "Good." "You rub it into the skin of the chicken with a little bit of the paprika." "But double the salt." "Look, you cannot just double the salt." "It'll be too salty then." "I don't care, just double the salt." "I'm not going to ruin it." "just double the salt, please." "No." "Tomasz" "No." "[men shouting in distance] [horses nickering] [galloping grows louder]" "All right, all right." "Everybody keep calm." "Oh, my God!" "No, no, no!" "Don't run!" "Don't run." "Be calm and smile." "Be friendly." "Hey, whoa!" "Whoa!" "Everybody smile." "Hello." "Hello." "[speaking Russian]" "[speaking Russian]" "[command to horse]" "That's south." "Are we going to eat that?" "It's either this or fish." "It looks like a bird's nest." "It will protect you from the sun." "Irena, try this for your feet." "[grunt]" "South." "Come on, we keep going." "[heavy breathing]" "No, it's another mirage." "We have no water." "There's trees there." "If there's trees, there--there's water." "No, I don't care." "It's east." "We're going south." "But, Janusz, we've got to give it a try." "No, no, no." "We must keep going south, or you'll kill us all." "Damn it!" "Janusz, we're dying." "We're already dying." "Stop." "It's a mirage!" "It's just a mirage." "[heavy breathing] [bird calls]" "[whispering] Mirages don't have birds." "[loudly] Mirages don't have birds!" "It's a well!" "[coughing]" "Don't fill yourselves." "You'll get sick." "(Zoran) At least we have water here." "(Janusz) Shh." "Shh." "You'll wake her." "Yeah, but no food." "(Voss) Maybe nomads will come to water their flocks." "When?" "Next week, next month?" "We should stay here at least a few more days." "Look, without food, we'll only get weaker." "And then maybe too weak to travel." "I don't know." "After these last days" "I don't know if I can go through that again." "It was a miracle finding this." "Can we count on another?" "Janusz?" "(Janusz) Okay, give me your best." "Ohh!" "Ah, ha ha!" "(Irena) Wait, wait, wait!" "Go, Tomasz!" "[happy shriek] [laughter]" "Hat, please." "Lower." "Run!" "Run!" "Get back, get back!" "Take cover!" "[thundering wind]" "Behind that dune!" "Irena!" "Get down!" "[shouting]" "Don't be afraid!" "[inaudible]" "[Tomasz, whispering] Irena." "Irena." "Sun-dried fish." "[weakiy] Thank you." "(Tomasz) Here." "Can you find our way back to the well?" "It was way off course." "Remember?" "I mean, way east." "There's no" "There's no features in this wasteland." "I could never find it." "When I helped my father in the fields during the hot summers, we used to suck on small stones like these." "Made us feel less thirsty." "Janusz!" "Sunstroke?" "I'm becoming a nuisance." "No, no, no." "Do they hurt you?" "No, not at all." "They must be swelling because I've walked so far." "Don't you think, Mister?" "Yes." "You lie back down now." "I'm gonna cover your legs up for you." "[labored breathing]" "Irena, we can stop for a while." "No." "just suck on this." "No!" "Please, no!" "No!" "Shh." "Shh." "Come on." "We've got to keep going." "My name is Irena Zieilnska." "Shh." "My name is Irena Zieilnska." "Shh, shh, shh." "Put me on the ground, Andrejs." "just lay me on the ground." "It's okay." "[exhales softly]" "(Voss) Command thine angels to receive her and to take her to heaven-- her country." "Amen." "[grunt] [flies buzzing]" "(Smith) I really like this one." "When did you do that?" "Second night in the Gulag." "Poor Kazik, always in trouble with his feet." "Who is this?" "You." "Looks like my father." "Is that how I look now?" "No." "Now, you look worse." "[Voss laughing weakly] [inaudible]" "You caught her smile." "Look." "This is--just a sketch." "But I'll work on it." "I'll do it." "That's really fine work." "You're a great artist, Tomasz." "It's almost like a photography." "It's the shadow." "It's really nice." "We have to get to those hills." "Water may be trapped there." "Come on." "Come on, get up." "Get up." "Mister." "Come on." "Go on without me." "I'm done." "Go." "Zoran... you go to the hills and look for water." "And you wait for us there." "No." "Yes." "We'll catch up." "Did you find water?" "No." "[rustiing]" "[gasping]" "Show me." "Please show me." "Where--?" "Where are you?" "[grunting]" "There's-- water!" "[slurping]" "[coughing]" "[whispering] Zoran." "Around here." "[weak laughing]" "Look at that, uh?" "What if--if it's poisonous?" "How can we eat it?" "No, no, no, we cut off its head." "Here." "Give me the knife." "Ah, look at that." "[loud sigh]" "Tastes like chicken." "Yeah." "A big, black, poisonous chicken with no legs." "(Janusz) Well, it's not bad." "You know, Valka talked of eating each other when we were in Siberia." "He did?" "Yes." "And?" "Would you have eaten me?" "[chuckling] Yeah." "Yeah, of course." "I would never have eaten you." "[laughing] Well, why not?" "Too stringy and bitter." "I'd rather eat snake." "Here's some water." "It can kill you, remember?" "What?" "Kindness." "How long can you survive on mud and snakes?" "Just leave me here." "You can't, can you?" "Look, Mister" "What?" "You know, I may not even know your first name, but i, uh" "I know your son's name." "Irena told you?" "Yes." "Can I say his name?" "David." "Saying his name won't bring him back." "What are you trying to do, give me the will to live?" "Is that it?" "Stop me from giving up?" "And are you giving up?" "In the camps, some saw death as freedom." "Then why didn't you just kill yourself?" "Survival was a kind of protest." "Being alive was my punishment." "Punishment for what?" "I brought David to Russia." "And now no one can forgive you." "And you can't forgive yourself." "Irena told me... that they tortured your wife... and she informed on you." "Yes." "They did the same thing to my boy." "Then they shot him in the head." "My wife is alive." "She lived-- and was released." "That much I know." "But she'll never be able to forgive herself for what she's done." "You see, only I can do that." "She will be torturing herself, just like you." "So you see, I have to get back." "I-have-to-get-back." "Janusz." "Pack your things, quick." "[dog barking]" "Janusz!" "(Janusz) Do you hear that?" "[flapping]" "What is that?" "[flapping]" "Tibet." "[laughing]" "[man speaking native language] [all repeat]" "Lhasa." "(Janusz) And where is India?" "(man) Mmmm." "[man speaking native language]" "India." "[speaking native language]" "India." "Yes." "There is the track to Sikkim, over the mountains." "Many people go there." "Are there villages on the way?" "Small villages, yes." "They give you food." "Fuel for fire." "But you can't go now." "Why?" "If big snow comes, very difficult." "You wait until spring." "This family keep you." "Well, we can't cross the mountains in winter." "(Janusz) He said it was difficult but not impossible." "Janusz, it's only three months." "Look, we can't let go." "What do you mean?" "If we stop now, then we'll give In to exhaustion." "No, it's not giving in." "We are exhausted." "I will sleep till spring like a bear in a cave." "You can study Buddhism and become a monk." "But first you must learn how to like their tea." "I already like the tea." "Good night." "[man speaks native language]" "What about you, Mister?" "What are you going to do for three or four months?" "I'm going to Lhasa." "Our friend has a contact." "He thinks he can get me out through China." "There's a U.S. military mission there." "Looking out for number one." "Isn't that what you Americans say?" "Zoran" "Zoran." "What?" "We escaped." "We made it." "You're right." "He's right." "Apart from a few mountains, we are there." "We made it." "Not all of us." "No, not all of us." "What are you going to do, Mister?" "When you go back home." "Home?" "Build Metros?" "Might drift a while." "I will fight." "First Germans, then Russians." "(Zoran) And then?" "(Zoran) Re-build your church?" "No." "I will die fighting." "I'm going to get Tomasz' pictures to a newspaper or get them published somehow." "And then I'm going to cook his chicken but with extra salt, just--just to annoy him." "And you, Janusz?" "As long as the communists are in Poland, you cannot go back." "They'll shoot you, Janusz." "I'll just, uh--keep going, you know, until it's over." "I'll just keep walking." "He's gone." "Janusz!" "[echoing] Janusz!" "[chatter]" "[woman shouting in native language]" "[speaking native language]" "Namaste." "Namaste." "Welcome to India." "Paper passport, please." "Passport." "We--we--we don't have." "Never mind." "Come with me." "[speaking native language]" "Where have you come from?" "Siberia." "Siberia?" "[speaking native language]" "And how did you come, sir?" "We walked." "Walked?" "[speaking native language] [appiauding and cheering]" "[crowds cheering]" "Subtitles by Ajeesh Vijayan"