However, shortly after departing, they are hit by a sandstorm and lose the majority of their water supply. They find a well, which provides temporary relief. As they continue south across the Gobi Desert, lack of water, sandstorms, sunburn, blisters and sunstroke weaken the group. Janusz realises that Mongolia is under communist control and since China is at war with Japan, tells the group they should take refuge in British India. The rest continue to Ulaanbaatar, but soon they see images of Stalin, Khorloogiin Choibalsan and a red star. When the group reaches an unpatrolled border between the Soviet Union and Mongolia, Valka, who idolizes Joseph Stalin and does not know what he would do elsewhere, decides to stay. Smith eventually cautions her about the lie and says he will not tolerate any more, in response to which she admits that her parents were communists but the communist rulers killed them anyway and sent her to an orphanage. Smith realises the inaccuracies in her story, as Warsaw is occupied by the Germans nevertheless, despite his misgivings that she'll slow them down and tax their meager food supply, he agrees with the group to let her in. There they meet Irena ( Saoirse Ronan), a young Polish girl, who tells them that Russian soldiers murdered her parents and sent her to a collective farm near Warsaw, where they treated her cruelly, so she escaped. After many days of travelling across the snows of Siberia, the group reaches Lake Baikal. Kazik freezes to death the second night of the trek, after losing his way back to the campsite while looking for wood, and the group buries him. Janusz follows through with the escape with Smith, Valka, Voss, Tomasz, Zoran and Kazik during a severe snowstorm that covers their tracks. At times Janusz seems to hallucinate the front door of a country home and adjoining window ledge, which holds plants and a rock he attempts to reach for. Smith cautions Janusz that it is Khabarov's way to discuss escape plans with newcomers, to maintain his morale, but nothing will come of it. Khabarov secretly tells Janusz that he is planning to escape south to Mongolia, passing Lake Baikal. Smith ( Ed Harris), an American engineer Khabarov ( Mark Strong), an actor Valka ( Colin Farrell), a hardened Russian criminal Tomasz ( Alexandru Potocean), a Polish artist Voss ( Gustaf Skarsgård), a Latvian priest Kazik ( Sebastian Urzendowsky), a Pole suffering from night blindness and Zoran ( Dragoș Bucur), a Yugoslav accountant. There he meets those with whom he later plans an escape: Mr. He is sentenced to 20 years in a Gulag labour camp deep in Siberia. The Soviets, unable to get him to admit that he is a spy, take his wife into custody as well and severely torture her from her they extort a statement condemning him.
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During World War II, after the Soviet invasion of Poland, young Polish army officer Janusz Wieszczek ( Jim Sturgess) is held as a prisoner and interrogated by the NKVD.