The Ascent - Voskhozhdeniye (1977 Film)

The Ascent (Russian: Voskhozhdeniye, literally - The Ascension) is a 1977 black-and-white Soviet drama film directed by Larisa Shepitko. Audio in Russian with English subtitles.

The movie depicts the story of two Soviet partisans on a mission to gather food contend with the winter cold, the occupying Germans, and their own psyches.

The movie was shot in January 1974 near Murom, Vladimir Oblast, Russia, in appalling winter conditions, as required by the script, based on the novel Sotnikov by Vasil Bykaŭ. It was Shepitko's last film before her death in a car accident in 1979. The film won the Golden Bear award at the 27th Berlin International Film Festival in 1977. It was also selected as the Soviet entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 50th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.

Cast & Characters:
Boris Plotnikov as Sotnikov
Vladimir Gostyukhin as Rybak
Sergei Yakovlev as Village elder
Lyudmila Polyakova as Demchikha
Viktoriya Goldentul as Basya Meyer
Anatoli Solonitsyn as Portnov, the collaborationist interrogator
Maria Vinogradova as Village elder's wife
Nikolai Sektimenko as Stas'