Ascent shows a very different form of fear, one that is raw and galling.

| Sep 4, 2024

[Director Larissa] Shepitko demanded that every word, action, gesture, and camera movement be internally motivated, and it shows!

| Jan 23, 2024

...a scarring B&W anti-war drama worthy of comparison to her husband Elem Klimov’s later Come and See...

| Jun 13, 2023

Shepitko etched her name in cinema glory for this achievement.

| Mar 2, 2023

Shepitko’s film is less interested in presenting a simplistic anti-war message and aims for something higher, spiritual transcendence.

| Sep 23, 2022

Though familiar, this is a fable re-created with an unabashed sense of grandeur as well as deeply touching humanity.

| Mar 1, 2022

Shepitko excels in conveying physical hardships and evoking a strong sense of locale. The foreboding landscape and the harsh physicality reflect the film's hard unflinching morality.

| Mar 1, 2022

I hope that preconceptions about films from the Soviet Union won't deter audiences from seeing The Ascent, a beautiful and humane story, sensitively directed by... Larissa Shepitko, about Russian partisans in the second World War.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 1, 2022

It's a harrowing and demanding film, enriched by a moving score and the grandeur of its outside photography.

| Mar 1, 2022

A remarkable piece of work, not least for being filmed in black-and-white against a vast, bleak expanse of snow.

| Mar 1, 2022

Shepitko none the less boasts a bravura style that has not frequently been seen in recent socialist cinema.

| Mar 1, 2022

Unhappily, these Passion Play references are forced a little too much in the playing, yet it has amazing moments.

| Mar 1, 2022

The film is less a spiritual tract than a relentlessly physical document: the snow, ice, and mud of Shepitko’s landscapes are the primary characters in the story.

| Mar 1, 2022

Larisa Shepitko’s final film before her untimely death at 41, The Ascent is a lyrical evocation of the costs of moral and spiritual fortitude in times of great despair.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 1, 2022

Larisa Shepitko’s 1977 film The Ascent remains a crowning achievement like no other.

| Mar 1, 2022

A film of uncommon power and even more uncommon brilliance.

| Mar 1, 2022

Emotional, harrowing, absolutely transcendent cinema.

| Mar 1, 2022

What may sound simple in the retelling is infused with an existential complexity that could indeed have come from the pages of Dostoevsky.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 1, 2022

The Ascent is uncompromising in its representation of the cruel realities of war.

| Mar 1, 2022

The Ascent is hardly an easy watch, but it is an essential one for anyone interested in war cinema.

| Mar 1, 2022