The epic adventure premiered at Telluride last autumn and is being released theatrically through Wrekin Hill and Newmarket on January 21.

CAA brokred the deal between Image and rights holders and producers Exclusive Films. Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong and Colin Farrell round out the key cast in the story, based on Slavomir Rawicz’s contested account of his escape from a Siberian gulag in 1940 and subsequent march to India.

The Way Back is the first film produced under the Exclusive Films label to be distributed through its subsidiary Newmarket Films, in partnership with Wrekin Hill.

National Geographic Entertainment and Imagenation Abu Dhabi co-produced the film, the first under their joint production agreement.