So weit die Füße tragen (As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me), former stunt man Hardy Martin’s second film as director, tells the true story of Cornelius Rost a 22-year-old German soldier who left his wife and child for the Russian front in August 1944 and was subsequently captured.   He was sentenced to hard labour in the bleak and notorious Kap Deschnew lead mines in Eastern Siberia near the Bering Straits.   The film is based on a novel written by Josef Martin Bauer in 1955.   Still fearful of reprisals by the KGB, Rost insisted that his real name was not used, which is why he is called Clemens Forell in both the novel and the film.   Journalists eventually tracked down and named Rost, who died in 1983 at the age of 61.

The book was a best seller in Germany, and was translated into several languages.   In 1959 a 6-hour TV adaptation of the book starring Heinz Weiss and directed by Fritz Umgelter was broadcast to great acclaim.   The programme attracted huge viewing figures and gave hope too many who still hoped a missing relative might return home.

 The cast and crew of the 2001 film endured harsh extremes of weather while filming.   Temperatures ranged from minus 20’C in Siberia to plus 55’C in the Uzbekistan desert.

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