[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 doubie the sait.
It'll be too salty then.
I don't care, just doubie the sait.
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]
[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 yourseif?
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 herseif
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.
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 : easytobeaman