Now onscreen... THE WAY BACK (Peter Weir)

Peter Weir is one of my great favourite directors. The Year Of Living Dangerously is a Top Twenty film for me and, along with The Last Wave, Fearless, Witness and even The Truman Show, straight up Soul Food (at least to this viewer). Dead Poets Society and Master And Commander both claim legions of fans, Gallipoli was a favourite of mine on first viewing but hasn't aged as well for me, and Picnic At Hanging Rock is maybe even a masterpiece,a singular poetic evocation of spiritual Mysteries.

After a seven year absence, Weir returns with The Way Back, a wartime drama about a group of Siberian gulag escapees making their way to freedom in Tibet. The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and is slated for release January 21, 2011. Cast includes Colin Farrell (In Bruges, The New World, Phone Booth), Ed Harris (The Truman Show, Appallosa, Gone Baby Gone, A History Of Violence, Pollock, The Right Stuff), Jim Sturgess (Across The Universe) and Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, The Lovely Bones).

Virtually all of Wier's films are available by mail or in person at Videomatica.