Gripping survival drama. From what I can gather, it seems to be generally close to true story. Morricone's score is not one of his best, but it's good. The cinematography is less breathtaking than other films by Kalatozov, but some of the shots are quite marvelous, especially the aerials. The screenplay is very well written, and keeps generating drama at appropriate moments, with an unusual framing device. But it would have been nice to see more about the political aspects of this event.