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The Ascent

Voskhozhdeniye (The Ascent)

1977

Larisa Shepitko

Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Sergei Yakovlev, Viktoriya Goldentul ...

7.9

1,600

War. Drama Set in WWII, it tells the story of two Soviet partisans who break from their squad to find food for the civilians they are escorting to the next safe encampment. They embark on a journey that will change their souls.

	Author	Review
United States	Dave Kehr The New York Times	"Extraordinary (...) Rich in moral complexities and spiritual underpinnings, filmed with a blend of brutal realism and a lyricism that at crucial moments passes into pure abstraction."	POS
United States	Fred Camper Chicago Reader	"The landscape is another actor here. The film is emotionally effective, though not especially original stylistically."	POS
United States	Jennifer Dunning The New York Times	"Both men have the force and simplicity of symbols (...) The performances all have a searing luminosity, particularly those of Boris Plotnikov, as Sotnikov, and Vladimir Gostiukhin, as Rybak."	POS
United Kingdom	Time Out	"An extraordinary, gruelling account of the partisans' fight against the Nazis in German-occupied Belorussia (...) A remarkable piece of work"	POS
United Kingdom	Larushka Ivan-Zadeh The Guardian	"Masterpiece (...) The film is outstanding not just for its ravishing aestheticism, but its Dostoevksian soul-wrestling and gripping central performances."	POS
Spain	FilmAffinity	According to director and film critic Mark Cousins, "The Ascent is the best war movie ever filmed."	POS

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