The ascent = Voskhozhdenie
(DVD)

Based on the novel "Sotnikov" by Vasili Bykov.

Originally released as a motion picture in 1977.

Full screen (1.37:1).

Title from title frames.

Special features: New selected-scene commentary by Daniel Bird; new video introduction by Anton Klimov; new interview with Lyudmila Polyakova; The homeland of electicity, a 1967 short film; Larisa, a 1980 short film; two documentaries from 2012 about Shepitko; program from 1999 featuring an interview with Shepitko; essay by Fanny Howe.

Cinematography, Vladimir Chukhnov, Pavel Lebeshev ; editing, Valeriya Belova ; music, Alfred Schnittke.

Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gosti︠u︡khin, Sergeĭ I︠A︡kovlev, Lyudmila Poli︠a︡kova, Viktoria Golʹdentul, Anatoliĭ Solonyt︠s︡yn, Nikolaĭ Sektimenko, Marii︠a︡ Vinogradova.

"The crowning triumph of a career cut tragically short, the final film from Larisa Shepitko won the Golden Bear at the 1977 Berlin Film Festival and went on to be hailed as one of the finest works of late Soviet cinema. In the darkest days of World War II, two partisans set out for supplies to sustain their beleaguered outfit, braving the blizzard-swept landscape of Nazi-occupied Belorussia. When they fall into the hands of German forces and come face-to-face with death, each must choose between martyrdom and betrayal, in a spiritual ordeal that lifts the film's earthy drama to the plane of religious allegory. With stark, visceral cinematography that pits blinding white snow against pitch-black despair, The Ascent finds poetry and transcendence in the harrowing trials of war"--Container

Rating: Not rated.

DVD, NTSC, region 1; (1.37:1 aspect ratio); Dolby monophonic.

Russian dialogue with optional English subtitles.