As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me

Clemens Forell is a German soldier. When the war ends he is tried by the Soviets and sent to a lead mine in Siberia; the sentence is twenty five years. The camp is near the Bering Strait, tens of thousands of kilometres from Europe. Forell escapes. The journey takes three years. He freezes in winter, meets hunters, smugglers and nomads, some of whom help and some of whom try to sell him. The camp commandant is after him and does not let go. Forell moves toward the Iranian border. Hardy Martins directs. Bernhard Bettermann plays Forell; Michael Mendl and Anatoliy Kotenyov are in the cast. It is a German production. The source is Josef Martin Bauer's novel, published in 1955; the book became a bestseller in Germany and was translated into more than fifteen languages. The man the book rests on was called Cornelius Rost; Clemens Forell was an alias, used because Rost feared the Soviet authorities. The truth of the account was later opened to dispute; researchers found inconsistencies in the timeline and the geography, and it has been argued that part of the story may have been heard from others. Its strongest side is the landscape; it was shot in wide format and the sense of distance is given directly. Its limit is length; the narrative is long and becomes a repeating walk in its middle stretch. Who it is for: viewers who like survival narratives and European period productions. Who it is not for: it is long, the pace low, and its claim to truth should be read with care.