There is a film that I checked out a few months ago when I was working for the summer in landscaping. The piece is called "The Way Back", and came out in January 2011. It is a true story about a group of prisoners from the Gulag Archipelago in Siberia who manage to escape and actually walk south 4000 miles to get to India. This story illustrates the indomitable will of the group as they walk, often malnourished and thirsty through deserts, plains, mountains, swamps and beaches.
I found that this film was especially motivational for me in the context of our walking class because I knew that a pilgrimage was what I wanted for the final assignment. While nowhere near as daunting as the journey undertaken by these men and the woman they encounter along the way, I feel a deep connection to long walks and the purifying qualities that they possess.
Many of the group that began the journey did not make it all the way to the end of the road. Those that did were changed irrevocably by the trials they underwent along the way. They were put to the test and they survived; they were stronger people for it. This film is the one I will recommend most strongly to our class due to its arduous nature, but there is a list I am compiling of my favourite journey movies.
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