The Ascent
Encyclopedia
The Ascent is a 1977 black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...

 Soviet
Cinema of the Soviet Union
The cinema of the Soviet Union, not to be confused with "Cinema of Russia" despite Russian language films being predominant in both genres, includes several film contributions of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union reflecting elements of their pre-Soviet culture, language and history,...

 war film directed by Larisa Shepitko
Larisa Shepitko
-Early Life:She went to the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow as a student of Alexander Dovzhenko. She was a student of Dovzhenko's for 18 months until he died in 1956. Shepitko graduated from VGIK in 1963 with her prize winning diploma film Heat, made when she was 22 years old...

 and made at Mosfilm
Mosfilm
Mosfilm is a film studio, which is often described as the largest and oldest in Russia and in Europe. Its output includes most of the more widely-acclaimed Soviet films, ranging from works by Tarkovsky and Eisenstein , to Red Westerns, to the Akira Kurosawa co-production and the epic Война и Мир...

. It was Shepitko's last film before her death in a car accident in 1979. The film won the Golden Bear award
Golden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....

 at the 27th Berlin International Film Festival
27th Berlin International Film Festival
The 27th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from June 24 to July 5, 1977.-Jury:* Senta Berger * Ellen Burstyn* Helène Vager* Rainer Werner Fassbinder* Derek Malcolm* Andrej Michaolkow-Kontschalowski* Ousmane Sembène...

 in 1977.

Plot

During the Great Patriotic War (World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

), two Soviet partisans
Soviet partisans
The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II....

 go to a Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

ian village in search of food. After taking a farm animal from the collaborationist headman (Sergei Yakovlev), they head back to their unit, but are spotted by a German patrol. Though the two men get away, Sotnikov (Boris Plotnikov
Boris Plotnikov
Boris Grigoryevich Plotnikov is a Russian film actor. His film debut was as Sotnikov in The Ascent, the acclaimed final film of Russian director Larisa Shepitko.- External links :...

) is shot in the leg. Rybak (Vladimir Gostyukhin
Vladimir Gostyukhin
Vladimir Vasilyevich Gostyukhin is a Russian film and stage actor.- Actor :* 1986: V poiskakh kapitana Granta as Major McNabbs-External links:...

) has to take him to the nearest shelter, the home of Demchikha (Lyudmila Polyakova), the mother of three young children. However, they are discovered and captured.

The two men and a sobbing Demchikha are taken to the German camp. Sotnikov is questioned first by the traitor Portnov (Anatoli Solonitsyn). When he refuses to answer Portnov's questions, Sotnikov is brutally tortured by members of the Belarusian Auxiliary Police
Belarusian Auxiliary Police
Belarusian Auxiliary Police, later renamed Ordnungsdienst , was established in July 1941. It was staffed by local inhabitants and had similar functions to those of the Ordnungspolizei - OrPo - German Police. The OD activities were supervised by defense police departments, local commandant's...

, loyal to the Germans, but gives up no information. However, Rybak is a different story. He tells as much as he thinks the police already know, hoping to live so he can escape later. The headman, now suspected of supporting the partisans, and a young girl are imprisoned in the same cellar for the night.

The next morning, all are led out to be hanged. Rybak persuades Portnov and the Germans to let him join the police. The others are executed.

As he heads back to the camp with his new comrades, Rybak is vilified by the villagers. Finally realizing what he has done, he tries to hang himself with his belt in the outhouse, but the belt becomes unfastened. He ties it more securely, but cannot summon the courage to go through with it a second time.

Cast

  • Boris Plotnikov
    Boris Plotnikov
    Boris Grigoryevich Plotnikov is a Russian film actor. His film debut was as Sotnikov in The Ascent, the acclaimed final film of Russian director Larisa Shepitko.- External links :...

     - Sotnikov
  • Vladimir Gostyukhin
    Vladimir Gostyukhin
    Vladimir Vasilyevich Gostyukhin is a Russian film and stage actor.- Actor :* 1986: V poiskakh kapitana Granta as Major McNabbs-External links:...

     - Rybak
  • Sergei Yakovlev - Village elder
  • Lyudmila Polyakova - Demchikha
  • Viktoriya Goldentul - Basya
  • Anatoli Solonitsyn - Portnov, the Nazi interrogator
  • Mariya Vinogradova - Village elder's wife
  • Nikolai Sektimenko - Stas'

See also


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