Presents
The Way
A Film by Emilio Estevez
(115 min., USA, 2010)
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THE WAY
Synopsis
“Solvitur ambulando. (It is solved by walking.)”
-- Augustine
From director Emilio Estevez and starring Martin Sheen comes a modern-day odyssey –
the soulful journey of a man rocked by personal crisis who sets off on an epic mountain trek,
thinking he is utterly lost, only to keep bumping into surprise moments of community,
companionship and inspiration that begin to steer his way. This spirited road-movie-on-foot
crosses territory that is alternately comic, adventurous and keenly moving, even as it becomes an
unforeseen gift from a son to his father.
Tom (SHEEN) is an affluent California doctor who arrives in St. Pied de Port, France to
collect the ashes of his venturesome son, Daniel (ESTEVEZ), who perished during a freak storm
in the Pyrenees Mountains. Arriving in a daze, Tom intends to turn right back around for the
home Daniel once dubbed an isolating “bubble” -- but at the last minute, he instead makes the
most impulsive decision of his carefully ordered life.
Following in his son’s footsteps, quite literally, Tom begins to walk the 500-mile Camino
de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage that for more than 1000 years has been made by millions of
around the world for every conceivable reason, from sheer adventure to searching for answers.
Out of shape and out of sorts, Tom stumbles from the trailhead, defiantly on his own. He doesn’t
want solace, and he’s not so sure he believes in salvation. But try as he might to escape, he keeps
running into unwanted company – including that of a sarcastic Canadian (DEBORAH KARA
UNGER) trying to kick the habit, a hefty, hedonistic Dutchman (YORICK VAN
WAGENINGEN) wining and dining his way through Spain, and a motor-mouthed Irish author
(JAMES NESBITT) chasing the story that might blast through his writer’s block.
Step by step, stunning mile after stunning mile, as Tom makes his way through incidents
both frightening and funny – from raging rapids to Gypsy encounters -- he can’t seem to help
opening up to the breathtaking landscape, to his unavoidable companions and the new
possibilities that now surround him at every turn. Suddenly, his misfit fellow travelers become
his truest friends. Memories become his strength. And Tom begins to see that all the comedy,
wonder and joy of the journey itself are what he was really after – and that this is just the
beginning of going after his destination.
Producers Distribution Agency and ARC Entertainment present an Elixir Films
Production of THE WAY, a film written and directed by Emilio Estevez. The film is produced
by David Alexanian and Estevez and stars Martin Sheen, Deborah Kara Unger, Yorick van
Wageningen and James Nesbitt.
Director’s Notes
2
In 2003, Martin organized a trip to Ireland. It was a reunion of sorts. A visit to the
village of my Irish grandmother Mary Phelan from County Tipperary on the day of what would
have been her 100th birthday. Growing up in a family of 10 children, now both his parents gone
and many of his brothers getting on in age, my father invited all the living uncles to join him as
well as my son Taylor, then 18 and working as his assistant on the TV series “The West Wing.”
The hiatus was six weeks long before filming would resume again in the summer, so off
to Ireland they went. The second part of my father’s “plan” was to leave Ireland and head to
Spain, having paid homage to his Irish roots, he would now give a nod to his father, Francisco,
born in the north of Spain, in Celtic influenced Galicia. He invited all present to join him,
however there were few takers. And so he set off for the Iberian Peninsula with a desire to
experience something he had heard stories about since he was an alter boy in the 40’s: The
Camino de Santiago. So, along with my son and his oldest, dearest friend and fellow actor Matt
Clark in tow, off they went.
However, to walk the 800 kilometer journey, it would require more time than the two
remaining weeks of his hiatus to complete. So, instead of walking, they rented a car.
Leaving Madrid, they headed due north, and bee lined for the nearest major stop along
the St. James route, the city of Burgos.
It was on the outskirts of this town where they stopped for the night in what Martin likes to refer
to as an “Albergue,” but it is in fact, a “Casa Rural.” An “albergue” or “refugio” would be on par
with a hostal, while Casa Rural is a rural house that also takes in pilgrims on The Camino.
Regardless, at this Casa Rural called “El Molino” or The Mill, is where Taylor would be
introduced to a beautiful young woman named Julia. Julia, the daughter of the innkeepers who
own and operate El Molino, spoke no English and likewise, Taylor spoke a few words of Spanish.
But somehow they managed to communicate enough to discover they had similar values, a shared
sense of humor and both being single – were happily attracted to each other.
What began as a chance meeting, resulted in Taylor coming back to America, only to
announce that he had fallen in love and was returning to Spain in the Fall to attend “classes” at
the University in Burgos. He has lived there ever since and married Julia in the summer of 2006.
During Taylor’s time in Spain, I began to get a gentle nudge from Martin to create a film
project. For him to star, of course. And this film would/could potentially shoot in Spain. “You
write something for me, “ he would demand. “A documentary,” he’d continue. “I don’t do docs,
Pop,” I would push back. When have I ever expressed an interest in directing a documentary?
How ‘bout never?”
He would press on, “Okay then. How about a story where two old guys go to Spain with
a young guy.” “And so what happens then?” I would ask. “That’s for you to figure out and
write, I’m busy on West Wing. You write this for me. It’ll be fun. You and me! In Spain!
We’ll hire Taylor to help us. Write this for me.”
I sat with this ‘story’ for a bit: ‘two old guys and young guy walking the Camino de
Santiago,’ and then, and…and….zzzzzzzzzzzz. It felt like a warm, eternal valium drip planted
firmly into my left arm. I couldn’t get my head around this story and I told him so.
3
But since the beginning of time, every child on the planet has endeavored to please their
parents. From the painted noodle cigar box the child brings home from the first grade to their
SAT scores to gain college entrance, there is the moment where the child comes through the front
door, fights to get their parents attention and finally says, “Look at this. Look at me. Aren’t you
proud of me?” I still have the art projects my kids made for me 20 years ago. I cherish them,
crude and silly as some of them may be.
So yeah, I wanted to please my dad. And if I was going to invest the time and energy
into creating something I would potentially spend the next two years of my life on, I wanted it to
be special for both of us. If I was going to build it, it had to be the finest Italian pasta glued onto
an empty Cohiba box before I would present it to him, and subsequently, the world. But I still
had no hook to the story.
And then it hit me. Or he did. The hook: Taylor. This was about losing a son on The
Camino. After all, hadn’t I lost mine on The Way? This was something I could relate to,
something that was close to me. I pitched it to Martin and without hesitating for a moment , he
said one word, “Go.”
THE WAY
Production Notes
Finding the Way:
About the Story
4
“You don’t choose a life, you live it.”
-- Daniel
THE WAY is the story of an unexpected gift a son hands off to his father, a gift that
emerges out of the blue from the twists and turns of an impulsive but illuminating journey.
Similarly, the film’s production was marked by a close and deep father-and-son
collaboration – one that took director Emilio Estevez and actor Martin Sheen on a passage
together into the high mountains of France and Spain and through some of the richly human
questions that draw them both: questions about love, about community and about what keeps us
moving forward when the road starts getting tougher, stranger and seemingly more forbidding. In
the process, they had a chance to explore not only the awe-inspiring land of their ancestors, but
their shared fascination with the power of laughter, forgiveness and even vexing relationships to
make the most arduous path feel meaningful.
Like Tom’s story, the film began with an exhilarating trip. Sheen was then in between
seasons on “The West Wing,” and had just attended a family reunion in Ireland when he realized
he had 7 more days to spend in Europe – and he intended to do something inspiring with it. He’d
long been intrigued by the famed Camino De Santiago, the winding, border-hopping series of
trails that since the Middle Ages has lured trekkers and seekers, both religious and secular, on the
hunt for such tricky and ephemeral aims as adventure, solace, cultural curiosity, penance,
friendship, wisdom, escape and renewal. Starting on the French border, the trek weaves through
the Basque Country of Spain – through lush forests, rolling hills, quaint villages and the famous
running-of-the-bulls town of Pamplona, all the way to the birthplace of Sheen’s father in Galicia,
where legend has it the sacred relics of St James the Apostle have been buried for millennia.
But the hikers who return each year to attempt the 500-mile test of endurance all say the
final destination isn’t the main goal – it’s what they see, and more importantly what they begin to
feel, along the way that makes the path such an unmatched experience in the modern world.
While technology and convenience might hold sway elsewhere in contemporary life, the
Camino’s mystery, unpredictability, sacrifices and basic emphasis on the daily necessities of
sleep, food and connection, seem to strip life back to its most revealing essence.
Since Sheen didn’t have the six weeks or more it can take to complete the full trekl or
even the time it takes to do it on bike or horseback, on that first, all-too-quick encounter, he drove
through portions of it, “just like an American tourist,” he laughs. Nevertheless, the Camino and
its streams of “peregrinos” – the Spanish word for pilgrim that still is used to describe those who
walk St. James’ Way, no matter their reason – swept him up and fired his imagination.
“Even in a car, the Camino de Santiago was an extraordinary experience,” Sheen recalls.
“I came back and started telling Emilio all these stories and I said you’ve really got to write a
scenario – this is something waiting for us to do! Emilio then started reading and after awhile, he
became carried away with it, too. As we began talking more and more about his ideas, he hit
upon the theme of a father and son and that’s what we decided to do.”
One of the many books that Estevez read during his research was Jack Hitt’s Off The
Road: A Modern-Day Walk Down The Pilgrim’s Route Into Spain, an irreverent account of the
journalist’s questioning hike on the Camino and the incredible array of characters he met on the
way, some earnest, some clueless, but all looking for something, whether inexplicable or
profound, to make the journey worth it. It struck Estevez as a contemporary Canterbury Tales --,
5
illustrating a revealing cross-section of modern lives just as Chaucer had done in the 14th Century
through chronicles of romance, heroics and farce among pilgrims of that era.
Using the stories Hitt collected as a launching pad, Estevez began to develop the story of
an accidental pilgrim: Tom, a self-reliant, widowed ophthalmologist settled into a comfortable but
routine and isolated life in California. Tom’s arrival at the Camino de Santiago trailhead in
France begins with a life-changing family accident – yet takes him on an adventure and into
encounters, as well as a reconciliation, he never could otherwise have imagined.
To Estevez, Tom was the epitome of the modern pilgrim. He was reluctant, uncertain,
skeptical, a bit broken and yet, for all his fierce independence, most definitely in need of
sustenance from others on his way through. “Along the way, Tom discovers he needs these other
people, they all are looking for something but need community most of all,” notes the
writer/director/
It was Tom’s on-the-trail transformation from gruff loner to anchor of a misfit group,
from a man bereft to a man who can’t wait to taste every possible drop of life, that led Martin
Sheen to feel that Estevez had cut to the heart of what the Camino de Santiago is all about.
“Emilio found a way to make Tom’s journey equally a physical adventure and an inner
quest,” sums up Sheen. “Tom begins to understand that our whole lives are pilgrimages. He
begins to understand that even though we all have to walk our own path alone, you still need
others. He begins to understand that he is part of a community; that has a responsibility to it; and
that there is a possibility of great joy and satisfaction in our lives. The beauty of the script is that
it gets to all that without ever hitting you over the head with anything.”
Indeed, that was essential to Estevez – to approach the film’s searching nature with the
unsentimental, roving, even whimsical style of a road movie. He focused on the in-the-moment
humanity of a journey that ultimately surprises the man taking it with its spirituality.
With the script finished, Estevez faced the challenging question of how he was going to
film a rambling, unpredictable, personal quest through Medieval mountain passages in a way that
would mesh with modern filmmaking. He brought in producer David Alexanian of Elixir Films,
known for directing the run-and-gun road-trip documentary A LONG WAY DOWN, to help keep
a dynamic, spontaneous feel to the process.
But, Estevez knew, no matter what lay ahead, it would be, in the words often exchanged
by those who hike the trail, a “buen camino.”
Encounters On the Way:
About the Cast and Characters
“You can start alone, but you never end alone.”
-- Popular saying on the Camino De Santiago
From the beginning, Emilio Estevez was committed to having his father play THE
WAY’s central role of Tom, who takes off on a 500-mile journey in spite of himself. “Even
when we were struggling to get this movie made, there was never any question about Martin
being Tom,” the writer/director states. “I mean who else could you have seen playing Tom? The
6
role was created for him and I certainly didn’t want to be on the Camino de Santiago without
him.”
Martin Sheen of course is no stranger to intense leading roles. He has dug deep into many
unforgettable characters, from his auspicious debut as a young outlaw in Terrence Malick’s
BADLANDS to his seminal role as a special operations officer hunting a renegade colonel in
Francis Ford Coppola’s APOCALYPSE NOW to his more recent roles as America’s best-loved
television President, Josiah Bartlet, on “The West Wing” and Boston Police Captain Oliver
Queenan in Martin Scorsese’s THE DEPARTED.
Still, Sheen was gratified to be handed such a compelling part from his own son – and he
sparked to the challenge of portraying a lost man who rediscovers his sense of direction in the last
place he would have thought to look. “You don’t get that many opportunities at my age to a play
substantial roles and this was the kind of role I think a lot of other terrific actors would have
cherished,” Sheen says. “That Emilio wrote this role for me was a tremendous gift.”
Estevez says the gift goes both ways. “To me it is a real privilege and an honor to work
with my father,” he says. “You know, I always remember that for every BADLANDS or
APOCALYPSE NOW he did, he also did a lot of other projects just to feed our family. So
getting the chance to work with him is also an opportunity for me to say: I know you made real
sacrifices as a father and this is my way of paying something back.”
At the same time, Estevez believes his father goes places and makes choices with Tom
that no other actor would have done in the same way. “John Huston was once asked who his
favorite actor was and he said his father Walter Huston, who he directed in THE TREASURE OF
SIERRA MADRE,” recounts Estevez. “And when the journalist asked him why, he said,
‘because he never tried to sell you anything.’ I think he could just as easily have been talking
about Martin. The only thing Martin ever tries to sell you on is his heart, and his heart is all over
this film.”
For Sheen, the key to the role was chipping away slowly and subtly at the thick slabs of
armor Tom has built around himself, as a father and as a man, over the years. Despite his
circumstances, Tom heads out thinking he needs nothing and no one, only to have all his notions
proven completely wrong, in both funny and moving ways.
“Tom is a very conservative kind of guy and when he starts out on the trail, he really
can’t be bothered by all these problematic people,” Sheen muses. “And yet, every time he goes
off on his own, he gets into trouble. Over time, he begins to see that he’s going to have to learn
to rely on others – and more than that, he’s going to have to let them know that they can rely on
him.”
One of the most powerful scenes for Sheen came right at the outset, when Tom must
identify Daniel’s body at the morgue in France, after having refused to accompany his son on the
trek just a short time earlier. To provoke a fresh reaction, Estevez decided to crawl into the body
bag before the scene was shot. “I had no idea he was going to be in there,” recalls Sheen. “When
I saw him, I thought to myself ‘Dear God,’ because that’s every parent’s worst fear. But it was
also a reminder that this is truly a father and son story. Tom thinks he’s going to walk the
Camino to complete his son’s journey but instead his son helps him to finally start his own.
Daniel allows Tom to become a true pilgrim and open up his heart to the world.”
7
Working so closely and intimately with Estevez was also a revelation for Sheen.
“Talking in the context of a fellow professional and not just a father, I think he is such a dear
man,” says Sheen of Estevez. “He’s the only director I’ve ever worked with who says things like
‘Action, please’ and ‘Cut, thank you.’ He’s so polite and respectful and his cast and crew adore
him. As an actor, he really gives you the opportunity to accept full responsibility for your
character.”
Producer David Alexanian was also excited by the quiet but simmering passion with
which Sheen approached the role. “The film is an attempt to do something truly authentic and
this is not a performance you can phone in,” Alexanian comments. “Martin is someone who is
quite devout but what I love about his faith is that he doesn’t ever preach it. He’ll talk about how
personal it is to him and how it has been helpful to him but he never tries to push anything – and I
think that really comes across in this performance. He is very real and compelling to watch the
whole way.”
Equally important to putting Sheen in the lead role was casting the three fellow travelers
who become his de facto family – and, who in the way of families are tricky, troublesome but
ultimately true to each other as they grow closer.
Deborah Kara Unger, the Canadian actress known for roles in such films as CRASH, 88
MINUTES, SILENT HILL and THE GAME, came on board to play the Canadian divorcee
Sarah, who appears to be aimlessly smoking her way across the Pyrenees, but has her own secrets
that are driving her forward.
In the role of the self-proclaimed “Fat Dutchman,” Joost, the filmmakers cast Dutch actor
Yorick Van Wageningen, who has been seen in such films as THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK
and THE NEW WORLD and takes a key role in the forthcoming THE GIRL WITH THE
DRAGON TATTOO directed by David Fincher.
Finally, the filmmakers cast popular Irish actor and Golden Globe nominee James Nesbitt
in the role of Jack, the overly chatty writer who thinks he’s finally broken through his writer’s
block when he hears of Tom’s moving impetus to hike the Camino with a backpack full of ashes.
Nesbitt, known for roles ranging from BLOODY SUNDAY to the mini-series “Jekyll” and his
forthcoming role in Peter Jackson’s THE HOBBIT, was so intrigued by the project that Estevez
rewrote the role around him.
“James was very high on the film, so we changed Jack from British to Irish,” Estevez
explains. “We already had Yorick, who is Dutch, playing a Dutchman, and Deborah, who is
Canadian, playing a Canadian, so it made sense to add in an authentic Irishman.”
Rounding out the main cast are two side characters who play a major role in Tom’s
decision to hike the trail to its very end: Oscar Munoz as the young Gypsy thief and Antonio Gil
(CHOCOLAT) as his folk tale-spinning father, Ishmael. Prolific international actor Tcheky
Karyo also makes an appearance as the sympathetic French Captain who greets Tom as he arrives
from America, unaware of what the Camino de Santiago is to those who set out on its path.
Tracking The Way:
About the Shoot
8
“Man’s real home is not a house but the road, and life itself is a journey to
be walked on foot.”
-- Bruce Chatwin
Emilio Estevez knew that THE WAY would not be a conventional production – by
necessity, it would have to be an unpredictable journey in and of itself. He wanted to shoot on
the Camino de Santiago with all its live dynamics, mercurial weather and teeming pilgrims, and
have his cast completely immersed in the experience of the trail just like their characters.
To do all this, he and producer David Alexanian decided to set out for the Pyrenees
Mountains with a minimal crew, numbering just over 50 people, cast included, most of them
locals. Meanwhile, Estevez and Spanish cinematographer Juan Miguel Azpiroz made the
decision to shoot the film on 16mm to allow for maximum flexibility. Their visual aim was to
capture the lyrical landscape that has caused so many modern pilgrims to fall in love with the
Camino, but at the same time, give the film’s visual design an inward focus that compels the
audience to plunge into the questions lingering in their own consciences and souls.
Once on the Camino for the six-week shoot, however, it all became about being ready to
follow what was happening in the moment. “We shot the film very much in a guerilla style, using
many real pilgrims,” notes Estevez. “There could be chaos, but there was also a lot of providence
along the way. Suddenly, just the right pilgrim would wander into our shot. And then there was
the fact that it rained only twice in 40 days, in a part of Northern Spain where it’s famous for
raining every day.”
The production received unprecedented cooperation from the Spanish government and
local villages, which allowed them to shoot the Camino as it has never been seen before on
screen. Estevez was thrilled when he learned that THE WAY would become the first feature film
ever granted permission to shoot inside the soaring Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the
Romanesque beauty first completed in 1122, and the official end-point of the Camino de
Santiago. The Cathedral had been loathe to let anyone shoot anywhere nearby after a disastrous
football-themed commercial punctured a hole in a centuries-old, stained-glass window.
Estevez was just about to search for an alternate cathedral or even re-write the climactic
final scene in which Tom and his companions arrive, each with their own intense emotions, when
48 hours before the shoot, word came that cast and crew would be allowed inside.
Still, they had just one hour of access to the Portico de Gloria, the 12th Century sculptural
masterpiece that adorns the Cathedral’s innards with a recreation of the Last Judgment that
traverses arches and columns – and has become part of the ritual of completing the pilgrimage.
They were also allowed to shoot one Mass, during which they were warned in advance the famed
“botafumeiro” (literally “smoke expeller”), one of the world’s largest swinging incense
dispensers, would be released into its stunning 65-meter, pendulum arc just once for the cameras.
“We had to be very coordinated with all our movements prior to shooting but it all
came off beautifully,” says Estevez.
Some of the shoot’s riskiest scenes came earlier, when Estevez and Sheen decided that
Tom would dive into a fast-moving river current to rescue his backpack and its precious cargo.
The nearly 70 years-old Sheen was game to do his own stunt.
9
“It was his idea to go into the river in the first place, so we added that to the script,” says
Estevez. “Then we found a river near the Camino that would work and even had the local dam
release some water so the current would be moving very fast. But when Martin saw what the
conditions were he said: ‘Whose idea was this?’ Our stunt man went in once, came back out and
said he wouldn’t do it again. But Martin went in and did it twice.”
What appealed to both Sheen and Estevez in that scene is the idea of resilience, one that
is central to the film, to our times, and to every successful trek on the Camino de Santiago. In
that moment when he refuses to let go of what he set out to do, Tom begins to see that this route
is going to change him, whether he’s ready for it or not.
Sums up Sheen: “The most gratifying thing when I’ve seen audiences watching the film
is to see them really inserting themselves into the journey with Tom and wondering if it would be
possible for them. So many people come up afterwards and say, ‘where do I sign up to do
something like this?’ It’s a powerful thing to be able to inspire people.”
About the Camino De Santiago
“This one thing I do . . . forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies
ahead, I press on toward the goal.”
-- St. Paul
Why, even in the 21st Century, do people from around the world flock to Europe’s
Pyrenees Mountains to follow an ancient, rough-and-tumble, 500-mile trail that climbs through
dusty mountain villages and steep hills to a Medieval cathedral before tumbling into the sea?
The lure goes back more than a thousand years, to the 9th Century, when a river of
devoted pilgrims began setting out on foot across old Roman trade routes towards Galicia, Spain.
Then, they had just one hope in mind: to visit the remains of the Apostle St. James -- which
legend had it where transported, after his beheading in Jerusalem, to the place he loved most in
Northern Spain -- and reap the blessings that act might bring. At a time when most people led
extremely cloistered lives, the chance to experience something sacred was irresistible to many,
and worth the considerable risks.
Indeed, in its early days, the Camino de Santiago was a very risky business. The weather
conditions were brutal, the provisions along the way were few and garrisons of armed toll
collectors could sweep down and demand a trekker’s meager funds. And yet, by the 14th Century,
it is estimated that as many as 25% of all Europeans walked the Camino. Even though most came
to the trail in order to do religious penance for their sins or to seek heavenly answers, its purpose
became more broad almost immediately, as reflected in a poem posted in a 13th Century
monastery along the path: “The door is open to all, to sick and healthy, not only to Catholics but
also to pagans, Jews, heretics and vagabonds.”
Soon, the Camino de Santiago became such a locus of human enterprise that the German
writer Goethe once remarked: “Europe was born on the pilgrim road to Santiago.” Monks built
monasteries along the path, locals erected rustic hostels and communal refugios and travelers of
all kinds began trading traditions, cultures and their most personal secrets on the way.
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The trek’s fame was once so great that American President John Adams wrote in his
journal while traveling in Spain in 1799: “. .. .always regretted that we could not find time to
make a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.”
As modern times prevailed, the Camino de Santiago faded from its central importance in
European life and as a religious must-do for the dedicated. But the road never emptied. Deep
into the 20th Century, travelers continued to show up every spring for the walk, driven by every
conceivable motivation – from spiritual questing to spouse seeking, from avoiding the draft to
facing one’s fears, from getting fit to gaining a new lease on life. (For a variety of individual
stories
on
why
people
have
walked
the
Camino
see
www.santiagocompostela.net/en_why.php?board=why.)
In the last 20 years, the Camino has experienced a renewed explosion in popularity –
accompanying an increased interest in both adventure travel and in more direct and personal
forms of spirituality. The numbers of hikers has been soaring ever since, nearly to Medieval-era
levels. While only 2500 people made the pilgrimage in 1985, last year some 200,000 diverse
“perigrinos” completed the path, which some travel catalogs today dub the “Mt. Everest of
European pilgrimages.”
The most popular route for today’s pilgrims is the so-called Camino Frances. This
lengthy course starts in St. Jean Pied de Port in Southwestern France, at the base of the
Roncevaux Pass, and ends either at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the reputed burial
spot of St. James, in Galicia or another 50 miles past Santiago to Cape Finisterre, a rocky
peninsula at the westernmost point of Spain, which was at one time believed to be the very end of
the world.
Covering an average of 15 miles a day, a hiker can complete the trail in six to eight
weeks, but there is no race. Everyone does it in their own rhythm, pace and style, some lingering
in the villages that catch their fancy, others trying to make the most of the short time they have.
While the trekkers span every nationally, age group, background and personal mission
possible, one thing binds them all together: each carries a pilgrim’s passport, or credencial,
issued by the cathedral authorities in Santiago, and also a scalloped seashell, the enduring symbol
of St. James, often worn as a badge of their intent to finish the trek. Like the etched lines on the
shell’s fan-shaped back, all the pilgrims’ paths are different, but ultimately converge at a single
point: the thrill of the journey itself.
#####
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Resources For The Way
Books:
A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino De Santiago, John Brierly, Findhorn Press
Walking the Camino De Santiago, Bethan Davies, Ben Cole and Daphne Hatnuik, Pili Pala Press
The Way of St. James, Alison Raju, Cicerone Press
Off the Road: A Modern Day Walk Down the Pilgrim’s Route Into Spain, Jack Hitt, Simon &Schuster
Walk in a Relaxed Manner: Life Lessons from the Camino, Joyce Rupp, Orbis Books
I’m Off Then: Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago, Hape Kerkeling, Free Press
The Pilgrimage, Paulo Coehlo, Harper One
Websites:
www.americanpilgrims.com (resource guide for American pilgrims on the Camino)
www.caminoguides.com (Findhorn Press guidebooks for the Camino)
www.caminodesantiago.me.uk (UK resource site for the Camino)
www.pilgrimsprogress.org.uk (extensive website about the pilgrimage concept)
www.csj.org.uk/ (official UK webiste for the Camino)
www.caminosantiagodecompostela.com/ (information site for prospective pilgrims)
www.santiago-compostela.net/index.html (extensive site with photos, maps personal stories and more)
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ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
THE WAY is EMILIO ESTEVEZ’s (Writer/ Director/ Producer/Daniel) fourth film
as writer/director and marks the third collaboration with his actor/father, Martin Sheen. Emilio
has established himself not only as an accomplished actor, but also as a talented writer, director
and producer. In 2006, he wrote, directed and co-starred in the Golden Globe nominated for Best
Picture BOBBY, which revisits the night Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador
Hotel in 1968 and is set against the backdrop of the cultural issues gripping the country at the
time, including racism, sexual inequality and class differences.
He made his acting debut in Tim Hunter’s TEX and appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s
ensemble drama THE OUTSIDERS, both based on S.E. Hinton novels. Estevez’ performance
as a quintessential high-school jock in John Hughes’ THE BREAKFAST CLUB won him
widespread attention and acclaim. Later that same year, he went on to appear in ST. ELMO’S
FIRE before starring in THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW, for which he also wrote the
screenplay.
Estevez made his directorial debut in 1986 with WISDOM, which he also wrote and
starred in. In 1996, Estevez directed Martin Sheen for the first time in the Vietnam drama THE
WAR AT HOME, which Emilio also starred in and produced. In 2000, he directed and costarred alongside his brother, Charlie Sheen, in Showtime’s RATED X which was the first time
Estevez and Sheen portrayed brothers on screen. Other film credits include, REPO MAN,
STAKEOUT, YOUNG GUNS, YOUNG GUNS II, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, AND THE
MIGHTY DUCKS.
In addition to creating original material as a screenwriter, the past few years has also seen
Emilio working behind the camera, directing many popular television shows including, Cold
Case, CSI:NY, Numbers and The Guardian.
Estevez is currently preparing his next film JOHNNY LONGSHOT – a sports family
franchise film set in the world of competitive harness racing, that he will direct and star.
When not working in film and TV, Emilio, an avid gardener, enjoys working outdoors in
his organic micro-farm, growing heirloom vegetables, raising chickens and tending his pinot noir
grape vines that produce his own wines under the Casa Dumetz label.
DAVID ALEXANIAN’s (Producer) journey on THE WAY began in 2008 when Emilio
Estevez saw a documentary David directed/produced called LONG WAY ROUND. At the time,
Emilio was scripting THE WAY and he asked David if he would come aboard to produce.
Having previously directed/produced two adventure series that circumnavigated the globe, David
was uniquely qualified for the task.
In LONG WAY ROUND, David chronicled the odyssey of Ewan McGregor and Charley
Boorman as they biked more than 20,000 miles from London to New York - through Europe,
Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Siberia, Far Eastern Russia and North America. The mini-series aired in
over 175 countries around the world and the book about the journey sold more than one million
copies. Two years later the team reunited for LONG WAY DOWN, this time highlighting a ride
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from the northern most tip of Scotland, through Europe, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Namibia and South Africa.
With this wealth of experience in hand, David flew with Emilio to Spain to begin a
different sort of road trip, an ancient pilgrimage called the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.
David and Emilio spent the next few months travelling along the 800km trek, location scouting,
hiring local crew, casting, and producing THE WAY.
Upon wrapping THE WAY, David traveled to South Africa to direct/produce a
documentary with Ziggy Marley and his brothers Rohan and Robbie. On a short deadline, David
filmed the Marleys, criss-crossing the country during the World Cup, jamming with local
musicians, and organizing a charity concert in Soweto promoting African Unity.
ABOUT THE CAST
MARTIN SHEEN (Tom) is one of our most celebrated, colorful, and accomplished
journeyman actors. The Ohio native has appeared in more than 65 feature films including a star
turn as Army Captain Benjamin L. Willard in Francis Ford Coppola’s landmark film
APOCALYPSE NOW, which brought Sheen worldwide recognition. Other notable credits
include WALL STREET (with son Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas), the Academy Award©winning film GANDHI (with Sir Ben Kingsley), CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (with Leonardo
DiCaprio & Tom Hanks), THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT (with Michael Douglas & Annette
Bening), and a Golden Globe© nominated breakthrough performance in THE SUBJECT WAS
ROSES.
In 2006, Sheen played ill-fated cop Oliver Queenan in Martin Scorsese’s Academy
Award©-winning film THE DEPARTED opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack
Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, and Alec Baldwin.
The same year, Sheen joined another all-star ensemble cast for the highly acclaimed
feature BOBBY, written and directed by his son Emilio Estevez. BOBBY was nominated for a
Golden Globe© Award and SAG Award© among others. The film also starred Anthony Hopkins,
Harry Belafonte, Laurence Fishburne, Helen Hunt, Brian Geraghty, Sharon Stone, William H.
Macy, Elijah Wood, Demi Moore, and Shia LaBeouf.
For television audiences, Sheen is best recognized for his award-winning role as
President Josiah Bartlet in NBC’s The West Wing.
Sheen is a passionate peace and justice activist. He has been arrested or cited 67 times for
taking part in nonviolent demonstrations against various U.S. military policies, and has
championed such causes as the alleviation of poverty and homelessness, human rights for migrant
workers, and environmental protection.
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In 2008, along with Carlos Santana and Edward James Olmos, Sheen became a National
Co-Chair of the effort to win a Federal holiday for the late Cesar E. Chavez, founder of the
United Farm Workers.
The same year, the University of Notre Dame presented Sheen with the Laetare Medal,
the oldest and most prestigious award given to an American Catholic. Since 1883, the Laetare
Medal has been awarded annually to a Catholic "whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences,
illustrated the ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity." Former recipients
include: President John F. Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr., Sister Helen
Prejean, Speaker of the House Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr., Catholic Worker Movement founder
Dorothy Day, and Ambassador and author Clare Boothe Luce.
As the first Canadian accepted into Australia’s prestigious National Institute of Dramatic
Art (NIDA), award-winning actress DEBORAH KARA UNGER (Sarah) debuted with Russell
Crowe in BLOOD OATH, and has co-starred in such films as: David Fincher’s THE GAME with
Michael Douglas and Sean Penn, Norman Jewison’s HURRICANE with Denzel Washington,
PAYBACK with Mel Gibson, David Cronenberg’s CRASH with James Spader, SIGNS AND
WONDERS with Stellan Skarsgard and Charlotte Rampling, Catherine Hardwicke’s THIRTEEN
with Holly Hunter, SALTON SEA with Val Kilmer, and 88 MINUTES with Al Pacino.
The recipient of the Geraldine Page Best Actress Award opposite Sir Ian Mckellen in
EMILE, and Canadian Academy Award nominations co-starring opposite Sophia Loren and
Gerard Depardieu in BETWEEN STRANGERS, and Ralph Fiennes in Istvan Szabo’s
SUNSHINE, Ms. Unger’s additional films include the critically acclaimed STANDER with
Thomas Jane, THE WEEKEND with Gena Rowlands, LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG with
John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson, WHITE NOISE with Michael Keaton, LEO with Dennis
Hopper and Sam Shepard, and Roger Spottiswoode’s Rwandan genocide film SHAKE HANDS
WITH THE DEVIL.
Unger was honored with the Imagery Award at Cinema Epicurea, and is the recipient of
the Libertae Award for her commitment to the spirit of independence in film.
YORICK VAN WAGENINGEN (Joost) was born in Baarn in the Netherlands. He
trained at the Actors Studio Amsterdam and worked the first fifteen years of his career solely in
the theater in both the Netherlands and France. He began doing Dutch films and TOTAL LOSS,
directed by Dana Nechushtan was selected for the AFI festival in Los Angeles, through which he
was introduced to Hollywood. During the last ten years van Wageningen has starred opposite
Angelina Jolie in BEYOND BORDERS, appeared in THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, THE
TULSE LUPER SUITCASES directed by Peter Greenaway, THE NEW WORLD directed by
Terrence Malick & most recently the award winning OORLOGSWINTER by Martin Koolhoven.
Yorick is married and has a dog named Atilla.
JAMES NESBITT (Jack) is a Northern Irish actor. He studied at The Central School of
Speech and Drama in London. After graduating in 1987, he spent seven years performing in plays
that varied from the musical UP ON THE ROOF (1987, 1989) to the political drama
PADDYWACK (1994). He made his feature film debut playing talent Fintan O'Donnell in HEAR
MY SONG (1991). Nesbitt got his breakthrough television role playing Adam Williams in the
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romantic comedy-drama COLD FEET (ITV, 1998–2003), which won him a British Comedy
Award, a Television and Radio Industries Club Award, and a National Television Award.
His first significant film role came when he appeared as pig farmer "Pig" Finn in
WAKING NED (1998). Nesbitt has also starred in Murphy's Law (BBC One, 2001–2007) as
undercover detective Tommy Murphy—a role that was created for him by writer Colin Bateman.
The role twice gained Nesbitt Best Actor nominations at the Irish Film & Television Awards
(IFTA). In 2004, he starred in the fact-based drama WALL OF SILENCE as the father of a
murdered boy, a role that gained him another IFTA nomination. In 2007, he starred in the dual
role of Tom Jackman and Mr Hyde in Steven Moffat's JEKYLL, which earned him a Golden
Globe Award nomination in 2008. Nesbitt has since appeared in several more dramatic roles; he
starred alongside Liam Neeson in FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN (2009), was one of three lead
actors in the television miniseries OCCUPATION (2009), and has filmed a role in the upcoming
miniseries THE DEEP. He also recently filmed OUTCAST (2010).
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