In Mongolia, the escapees approach an arch decorated with photos of Stalin and a Mongolian leader. When they first see the arch, there is a band of local people coming toward them, led by a person mounted on an animal (probably a horse). However, as the escapees reach the arch, the local band has disappeared.
When Irena is being carried in the desert, the film gets flipped. First she was on the left side, then during a close-up she is on the right, then when they go back out she's on the left again.
Although the escapees, nearly walk themselves to death, they never actually lose significant body weight during their travels.
In the establishing long shot of the woodcutters, many of the prisoners are clearly only pretending to cut the logs, only tapping them with their axes.
At the 1 hour mark, as they are frantically crossing the breaking ice, there are two locals casually standing in the background on the receiving shore watching the scene play out.
Janusz demonstrates a method using shadows of a stick and rock to find the compass direction of south. Yet, many of the scenes show them walking in a direction inconsistent with sun angles i.e. sun at their backs, which would have them walking north.
When they notice Janusz has left the Tibetan monastery and they call for him on the mountain ridge, K2 appears in the background, which is in the Karakorum mountains, far away from where the action rolls, near the Tibetan border with Nepal.
The original plan is to escape to Mongolia, but they discover it has a Communist government. But this government had been ruling since 1924. It is unlikely that not one of the escape party would have known this.
Janusz is relentlessly driven in his desire to get back to his wife, to let her know that he forgives her. But he waits over 40 years to do so. In reality, he would not have been shot or even imprisoned had he returned.
The region of Poland that the Soviet Union annexed during and after the war would have been divided between Belarus and Ukraine, so Janusz would have had to return there, rather than Poland, in order to reunite with his wife.
The region of Poland that the Soviet Union annexed during and after the war would have been divided between Belarus and Ukraine, so Janusz would have had to return there, rather than Poland, in order to reunite with his wife.