The Ascent

Two Soviet partisans are sent on a foraging mission in the frozen Belarusian countryside during the German occupation, but are captured by collaborators and Nazi forces. Facing interrogation and the threat of execution, each man responds differently, testing questions of faith, betrayal, and sacrifice. The film builds toward a harrowing, spiritually charged climax.

Nazi Germany's occupation of Belarus involved brutal anti-partisan operations, mass reprisals against civilians, and widespread use of local collaborators, with partisan resistance movements playing a significant role behind German lines on the Eastern Front.

An allegorical, philosophically framed drama based on Vasil Bykov's novel rather than a depiction of a specific documented event.

Germany's last major offensive in the east broke against defences prepared in depth, and the Red Army held the initiative thereafter.

Soviet intelligence anticipated the attack and built belts of minefields and anti-tank positions. The armoured clash near Prokhorovka on 12 July has become emblematic, though its scale is often exaggerated. Soviet counter-offensives retook Orel and Kharkov.

Directed by Larisa Shepitko

Cast: Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Lyudmila Polyakova

Positioned at Winter 1942 within the World War II phase of the war, as part of the German occupation of Belarus. This is entry 56 of 150 in the chronological archive.

• Soviet partisans
• Belarus occupation
• moral drama
• Shepitko
• Eastern Front resistance

• 

  The Dawns Here Are Quiet

  Spring 1942

• 

  Stalingrad

  September 1942 – February 1943

• 

  Stalingrad

  August 1942 – February 1943

• 

  Enemy at the Gates

  September 1942 – February 1943

• 

  Come and See

  1943

• 

  Ivan's Childhood

  1943–1944