Part-funded by National Geographic Entertainment, The Way Back follows a ragtag multinational group of escaped prisoners from a Siberian prison camp in 1939 during their 4,000-mile walk to freedom across Siberia, Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, Tibet and the Himalayas.

As expected thanks to its source of funding, the scenery and cinematography is absolutely stunning. It’s a shame that the movie – director Peter Weir’s first since Master and Commander seven years ago – does not match the landscapes.

Jim Sturgess plays Janusz, a Polish political prisoner whose wife was tortured and confessed to his alleged spying, sending him to the gulag.

This is a prison where the weakest inmates drop dead on marches into the surrounding countryside and those who have misbehaved are sent to work down the mines.

Janusz meets other political prisoners as well as hardened criminals, the de facto leader of who is a heavily-tattooed and dubiously-accented Colin Farrell who by the virtue of owning a knife joins an escape party of seven men which also includes American Mr Smith (Ed Harris).

Because of this American, the men conveniently speak in English, suddenly slipping into the Mother Tongue without explanation as the initial subtitles are forgotten.

This is a movie with a strong central core, the need and desire to survive. The true story which The Way Back is based on is testament to the power of the human spirit.

But our escapees are made up of one-dimensional characters for easy reference: the strong one, the weak one, the angry one, the naughty one, the funny one.

They are later joined by a 14-year-old Polish girl (Saoirse Ronan) who has escaped from a collective farm. She manages to bring some humanity and humour back to the group of men whose bestial instincts are rather obviously shown when they chase away a pack of wolves so they can hungrily rip apart a dead animal with their teeth.

If you think our current cold snap is bad, try watching the men’s trek through the snow and not shiver. Or not wince at their painfully slow journey across the desert with next to no water or protection from the beating sun.

The Way Back has some moments of harrowing human drama, but all too often this is mere background to what is a visual travelogue of epic terrain.

The Way Back opens today at the Watershed. Click here for more information.