Ascend to Descend: Shepitko’s Contrast of Virtue in The Ascent

Larisa Shepitko’s The Ascent exposes the virtues of humanity through the contrast of actions that are morally right and wrong through her use of film as a visual medium. These different morals are indicated through a visual style that expresses what is pleasant in life and what is harsh by comparing them to what is visually beautiful and what is ugly. Through this comparison, Shepitko’s heavy visual style reflects the disparity between beauty and ugliness, revealing how these two aspects of morality must coexist.

The film illustrates a heavy gritty visual aesthetic that embellishes the ugliness that Shepitko is trying to convey. The beginning of the film depicts violent battle scenes that embodies the graphic brutality that is present in life. Furthermore the handheld camera that is apparent in these battle scenes embellishes the ugliness and makes the unpleasant look more realistic. The violence is accentuated even more as the film is set in a bleak and barren tundra that shows no signs of other life other than the soldiers fighting for theirs. This illustrates how there is nothing positive to emerge out of the unpleasant conflict especially in a desolate landscape, unless Shepitko uses certain visual cues to express otherwise.

Amidst the ugliness of the film, Shepitko provides a visual silver lining that exists underneath the ugly nature of the film. Shepitko visually references a number of biblical images in scenes of violence, particularly Michelangelo’s “Pietà” in the Nazi POW camp where Rybak embraces Sotnikov in his mutilated state, as well as scenes of crucifixion where Sotnikov is hanged along with other prisoners towards the end. The use the religious visual allusions in this case do not necessarily provide commentary on the existence of religion. Instead, Shepitko is referencing a narrative that heavily discusses virtue, particularly what is morally right, which is suggested as beautiful in the film. The visual beauty that escapes the the brutal landscape that adorns the ugly nature of the film reflects how these to facets must exist together.

This coexistence of beauty and ugliness is mainly an extension of what the film is about - a clash of what is morally right and wrong. This concept is reflected through the central characters’ roles in the film. In this case Sotnikov, in some way, dies hero because he withheld evidence from the Germans, while Ryback confesses in exchange for his life. While Sotnikov doesn’t necessarily allude to who is right or wrong, their conflicting actions are a direct reflection to the clash of beauty and ugliness. More importantly this contrast in virtues reflects the importance of their coexistence.

This importance of the coexistence of beauty and ugliness directly reflects how both right and wrong must exist in life. In the film, the wrong, or ugly, is always present both visually and narratively around the characters and the landscape. However, the beautiful, or the right, seems to always escape the grittiness of life and expose itself visually. As these visual depictions of different virtues coincide, it is expressing how they must coexist.