However, the process of making the film proved incredibly traumatic for Shepitko whose rising stress levels saw her require medical treatment. In 1971, she had made the film You and I, a character study concerning two surgeons struggling with different notions of fulfilment which was widely seen as a swipe at modern consumerism from the Soviet filmmaker. The novel first came to the attention of Larisa Shepitko at a very difficult time in her life.
At the eleventh hour, Sotnikov’s spirit will prove unbreakable, whilst Rybak will betray him in the fruitless hope that his own life will be spared. Interrogated and tortured, the two men endure a long dark night of the soul in preparation for the morning and meeting their inevitable tragic fates. Coming across a farmhouse, they are captured by the Germans. It tells the story of two Soviet partisans, Sotnikov and Rybak, who are sent off in search of food during a retreat from the advancing German army. Bykaŭ was a prolific novelist whose books were based on his experiences serving in the Red Army during World War Two (or rather, The Great Patriotic War, as it is known in Russia) and Sotnikov is no exception. The Ascent is a black and white Soviet drama from Mosfilm based on a 1970 novel by the Balarusian author Vasil Bykaŭ which has been variously called The Ordeal and Liquidation, but is perhaps best known as Sotnikov, from the narrative’s central protagonist. I’m talking about Larisa Shepitko’s stunning 1977 Golden Bear winning The Ascent. What’s that at the back? You’ve seen Melville’s Army of Shadows already? Well that’s OK, because I’m not talking about that. Released on Blu-ray this week via the Criterion label comes arguably the best war, or rather anti-war film, you’ve never seen.
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