The Ascent
This was a really well made film. It’s shot in a stark, washed out black and white which is suitable and effectively conveys the icy landscape but quite draining to watch. The experience of the film as a whole was similar, undeniably good but incredibly harrowing.
It begins with scenes of physical suffering - cold, hunger - but moves on to moral questions, the suffering of the soul. What price survival in this sort of environment? What is the cost of integrity?
Spoilers follow:
At first, Rybak seems brave and heroic, volunteering for the mission, helping his friend and compassionate not shooting the headman but it all unravels. Later I thought back on that scene and wondered whether it was compassion, cowardice, or whether he recognised something in the headman that was also inside himself.
Did Rybak do the right thing in surrendering to the Germans in the loft? Was he a coward? Or just a survivor? “Who doesn’t want to live?”
There’s a really interesting moral discussion between the two of them in the basement - is it better to stick to principles and die, or compromise and live to fight another day? Which really helps your cause the most? But they are in different positions - Sotnikov is wounded, possibly dying anyway. Does that make the decision easier for him? Has he got less to lose? Rybak says he wants to play them, but is he just kidding himself? Sotnikov: “Don’t crawl in ****, you’ll never wash it off.”
There are lots of really tense scenes, the loft hiding but also particularly the first interrogation from the Nazi officer with its underlying menace to begin with and then the torture. I’m glad I didn’t see this big screen, I had to watch some of it almost out of the corner of my eye, it was almost too much to watch. Not because its particularly graphic, just that it’s quite raw. There are times when characters stare into the camera and its almost too much
Portnov is one of the most chilling on-screen Nazis, alongisde Ralph Fiennes as Schindler’s List’s Amon Goeth. “Now you’ll see what true scum is. It won’t be me but yourself.” Chilling manipulation.
I wondered about the title The Ascent, and whether it was literally about that long walk up the hill, or whether it had some religious connotations. I’m not sure whethe it is a literal translation of the original Russian title. There’s a sort of religious imagery in the film - the ascent of the hill, the mentions of Judas. Sotnikov is almost lit up towards the end, like a painting of a saint or martyr. He seems young and uncertain at the beginning but older and wiser at the end, it’s interesting to watch the change and the reversal between the two men. Sotnikov attempts to sacrifice himself by confessing - without betraying his principles, there’s no artifice in it he’s proud of himself and his role in the army. While Rybak betrays himself and the others.
At the end even the Nazi investigator drops his sneer and can’t quite look dignity and integrity in the face.
There were some really powerful images in this film. The empty noose. The way you see the bench and the feet but not the deaths themselves. The power of suggestion. Lots of long and unflinching close-ups as well. Shapitko doesn’t let the characters or the viewer dodge the moral questions and the implications of the characters’ actions.
The music I thought was very suitable - or rather soundscape as it’s not especially musical.
Didn’t remind me of Tarkoskvy, really, actually the film it reminded me of most was Come and See.