London
(ANI):
The
book
The
Way
Back,
which
tells
of
a
group
of
prisoners
who
escape
a
Soviet
gulag
and
trek
4,500
miles
to
freedom,
has
landed
in
controversy.
The
reason
for
the
controversy
is
that
some
believe
the
accounts
given
in
the
book,
on
which
an
upcoming
drama
film
is
based,
are
true
while
others
feel
it
is
all
fiction.
“Controversy
does
surround
the
question
of
whether
the
man
who
wrote
the
book
was
on
the
whole
walk," Sky
News
quoted
director
Peter
Weir
as
saying.
“He
was
certainly
a
prisoner,
so
I
decided
to
fictionalise
it,
change
the
title,
re-name
the
characters
and
then
draw
on
the
experiences
of
others
who"d
been
in
the
gulags,"
he
said.
The
book
first
appeared
in
1956,
and
right
from
the
start,
no
one
could
find
information
to
prove
or
disprove
whether
the
author,
Slavomir
Rawicz"s
account
really
happened.
Weir"s
pursuit
of
the
truth
took
him
to
London,
Moscow
and
Siberia.
“I
wanted
everything
that
was
on
the
film,
all
the
dialogue,
everything
sourced
back
to
either
an
account
in
person
or
a
book,
so
it
would
be
deeply
true,"
he
revealed.
The
film,
which
follows
the
escapees
across
some
of
the
world"s
most
inhospitable
terrain,
has
actors
Jim
Sturgess,
Colin
Farrell,
Ed
Harris
and
16-year-old
Saoirse
Ronan
starring
in
it.