The Ascent

1977

Released 15 FEBRUARY

Blu-ray

Filmmakers love to brag about how brutal their last shoot was – think of, or poor Leonardo DiCaprio facing ‘possible hypothermia’ on the set of . Russian maestro Larisa Shapitko would’ve laughed in their faces, and with good reason. Her final film , adapted from the novel ‘Sotnikov’ by Vasil Bykau, was scripted and planned while Shapitko was heavily pregnant and living in a sanitorium suffering from spinal damage, the after-effects of hepatitis and a bout of depression after her previous film was severely censored by the Soviet authorities. was shot outdoors in minus 40 degree temperatures, with a cast of unknowns and an increasingly ill director. It was criticised by the authorities for its use of religious imagery – but released intact. Shapitko died in a car crash two years later.