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Poster for The Ascent

The Ascent

1977 · 110 min

A harrowing, slow-burn descent into moral and physical torment, shot in stark black-and-white with unrelenting intensity.

Overview
During a freezing WWII winter, two Soviet partisans on a mission to gather food contend with the temperature, the occupying Germans, and their own psyches.
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • bleakstrength 3 of 3
  • tensestrength 2 of 3
  • earneststrength 2 of 3
  • darkstrength 2 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • betrayal
  • survival
  • guilt
  • morality
  • war
Places
  • countryside
  • small town
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
  • nonlinear
Content intensity
  • Gore mild
  • Language mild
  • Violence strong
  • Sex none
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action3
Horror4
Humour0
Realism8
Romance0
Tension8
Darkness9
Complexity7
Emotional weight9

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Where to watch in the UK

Rent or buy
  • Apple TV Store
  • Amazon Video

Streaming data from JustWatch.All options on TMDB

Details

Genres
drama, war
Directed by
Larisa Shepitko
Written by
Yuri Klepikov, Larisa Shepitko
Starring
Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Lyudmila Polyakova, Viktoriya Goldentul, Sergei Yakovlev, Mariya Vinogradova, Mykola Sektymenko
Music
Alfred Schnittke
Cinematography
Vladimir Chukhnov
Runtime
110 min
Country
Soviet Union
Languages
German, Russian

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