''East/West'' (french: Est-Ouest; russian: Восток-Запад, Vostok-Zapad) is a 1999

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

film directed by

Régis Wargnier Régis Wargnier (; born 18 April 1948) is a French film director, film producer, screenwriter and film score composer. His 1992 film ''Indochine (film), Indochine'' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 65th Academy Awards. ...

, starring

Sandrine Bonnaire Sandrine Bonnaire (; born 31 May 1967) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter who has appeared in more than 40 films. She won the César Award for Most Promising Actress for ''À Nos Amours'' (1983), the César Award for Best Actr ...

, Oleg Menshikov,

Catherine Deneuve Catherine Fabienne Dorléac (born 22 October 1943), known professionally as Catherine Deneuve (, , ), is a French actress as well as an occasional singer, model, and producer, considered one of the greatest European actresses. She gained recogni ...

and Sergei Bodrov Jr. It received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

In 1946,

Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

calls all White Russian émigrés who fled to the West after the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...

, back to the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in order to help rebuild the devastated motherland in the aftermath of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

and are offered citizenship. Among this group is the émigré Doctor Alexei Golovin (Menshikov) who also believed in Stalin's promises of a peaceful new beginning, his French wife Marie (Bonnaire) and their young son Serjoscha. The atmosphere on the ship taking them to Russia is jovial, with drinking and singing. But as soon as they arrive in Odessa, it turns out that Stalin was only using his promises as an excuse to murder the exiles or have them put in

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

s. Once they come ashore, the Soviet authorities separate them into two groups, 'fit' and 'unfit'. A man is shot trying to run back to his father from whom he is separated, and the Golovins begin to understand the situation they have landed in. Marie is branded a spy, and her French passport is torn up. Alexei accepts a job in

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

overseeing the health conditions in a factory and the family moves into a communal house. Marie briefly befriends the elderly housekeeper—who speaks some French—but this lady is quickly 'denounced' by the state and ends up dead. Her grandson Sasha (Bodrov) is left without a place when boarders come in and claim his missing grandmother's room, and Marie, guilty, invites him to live in the Golovin room. Marie feels stifled and repressed and wishes to go back to France dearly. She attempts to go to the Soviet authorities and demand to be sent back, but she is stopped by Alexei. Public, noncompliance, he knows, could get them all killed. She also approaches a French actress, Gabrielle (Deneuve), and attempts to gain her help in escaping the USSR. Marie and Alexei grow distant as he acclimates to his role as the public health advisor and toes the party line, while she yearns for the West. Her budding friendship with Sasha, who is a champion swimmer recently thrown out of the local team, becomes a vehicle of possible escape. As she helps him train in order to regain his position on the team, they see an opportunity to go West for the European championships, and help them both towards liberation. Marie gains a job working to iron clothes for the military choir in Kyiv. Maria and Alexei have a falling out after he thanks the Soviet government and Marie is furious. Alexei reveals that he has slept with the neighbor, because Marie has become distant and the other woman 'looks at him differently' than the resentment he constantly gets from Marie. She throws him out and he begins to live in the neighboring room with the other woman. Sasha wins the trials and is selected for the championship in Europe. After the selection, he spends the night with Marie. Yet soon after Marie's letters to her French family are discovered in his things and his coach warns her to stay away. He goes to a training camp by the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

. While away for training, Sasha secures secret passage on a ship West and needs money. Marie furnishes the money and comes to that city with the military choir. The ship captain reveals he can't come close to shore, so Sasha attempts to swim 6 hours out to meet him in the water. Marie is brutally interrogated by the same

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

official she first met when she came to the USSR. It is revealed that Sasha successfully escaped to the West and Marie is implicated and jailed for six years. Upon her release, her now-grown son and husband come to receive her. She reconciles with Alexei, and he promises her he still loves her. Two years later they are in a delegation to

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

and Alexei reveals to Marie he has arranged for her escape over the past few years by speaking to the actress Gabrielle. Marie and her son escape with Gabrielle to the French embassy. Alexei is arrested for complicity and sent to be a medic in a Gulag in Sakhalin. He is not able to return to France until 1987.

Cast

as Marie Golovina * Oleg Menshikov as Alexey Golovin *

as Gabrielle Devele * Sergei Bodrov Jr. as Sasha Vasilyev * Grigori Manoukov as Pirogov * Tatyana Dogileva as Olga *

Bohdan Stupka Bohdan Sylvestrovych Stupka ( uk, Богдан Сильвестрович Ступка; 27 August 1941 – 22 July 2012) was a popular Ukrainian actor and the minister of culture of Ukraine. He was born in Kulykiv, General Government to Ukrainian ...

as Colonel Boyko * Hubert Saint-Macary as embassy advisor * Atanass Atanassov as Viktor * Valentin Ganev as Volodya Petrov

Reception

Critical response

''East/West'' has an approval rating of 65% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 31 reviews, and an average rating of 6.53/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews"

Awards

;Nominated * 1999 Golden Globes: Best Foreign Language Film * 1999 César Awards: :: Best Film ::

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress aw ...

: Sandrine Bonnaire :: Best Director: Regis Wargnier :: Best Music: Patrick Doyle * 1999 Academy Awards: Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film — Regis Wargnier * 1999

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...

Awards: Best Foreign Film ;Won * 2000 Miami International Film Festival: Audience Award * 2000

Palm Springs International Film Festival Palm Springs International Film Festival (sometimes stylized shortly as PSIFF) is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. Originally promoted by Mayor Sonny Bono and then sponsored by Nortel,here for Table of Contents it started in 1989 ...

: Audience Award * 2000 Santa Barbara International Film Festival: Audience Choice Award IMDb - Awards
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References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:East West 1999 films 1999 drama films 1990s French-language films 1990s historical drama films 1999 multilingual films 1990s political drama films 1990s Russian-language films Bulgarian historical drama films Bulgarian multilingual films Films about the Soviet Union in the Stalin era Films directed by Régis Wargnier Films scored by Patrick Doyle Films set in the 1940s Films set in the 1950s Films set in Kyiv Films set in Odesa Films shot in Bulgaria Films shot in Kyiv Films shot in Odesa France 3 Cinéma films French historical drama films French multilingual films French political drama films Russian historical drama films Russian multilingual films Spanish historical drama films Spanish multilingual films 1990s French films Works about the Gulag