East/West (1999)

Perfect cast and a good story

An unexpected masterpiece

Blistering performances.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Poor, poor Seryozha...He first goes to his father's homeland because his parents decided so. Upon arrival they barely get out alive, only to live in a very uncomfortable apartment in another town. But that's alright cause his parents' great love will get them through anything. But, no... His dad gets mixed up with a woman from the room across of theirs. He confesses it to Seryozha's mum because he's a man of principle. Mum kicks Dad because she's a woman of principle. He now lives with his new woman that Seryozha doesn't seem to be very fond of. Very soon Mum starts an affair with a 17-year old swimmer that she was so nice to let in their room, but she lies Seryozha's dad about that affair (she's got different principles, I guess). By the way, they both very much love their son. Small problem for Seryozha is that Mum wants him to only speak French in the house and Dad wants him to only speak Russian in the house. Once the swimmer gets out of the picture, and Dad gets enough of his new woman, he goes back to Mum, who generously accepts him. The happy family is reunited and stronger than ever! But the swimmer reappears and Mum is willing to try and escape to another country with him... Many more dramatic troubles turn up, but the liberal love of Seryozha's parents conquers and we get a pretty happy ending. Oh, boy...

I was actually a bit surprised to see a French film that realistically depicted the Soviet Union--particularly in the later years of the Stalin regime. That is because Communism is pretty widely accepted in France. So, it was nice to see intellectual honesty by showing how repressive and brutal Russian-style communism was.Sandrine Bonnaire gives an excellent performance as a French woman who agrees to emigrate to the USSR with her Russian husband following WWII. Stalin insisted all Russian expatriates would be warmly welcomed. However, once they arrived, most were either executed or sent to gulags to be worked to death. However, this woman and her family are allowed to stay--after she is savagely beaten by the secret police for being "an imperialist spy". Well, life is amazingly tough in the USSR and she desperately wants to escape back to the West. However, doing this WITH her son isn't easy. Plus it's made worse after she helps another Russian escape. After years in a re-education camp, she is released to her family. Fortunately, she has not given up hope. Will she escape? Will she be able to take her son and husband? Tune in and see for yourself.The film is extremely interesting and important historically--well worth a look by parents or teens (it's a little too adult for younger audiences).

East West is a fantastic, beautiful film: part-love story, part-historical drama and part-Cold War thriller. It has elements of Frederick Forsyth, John le Carre and Boris Pasternak but surpasses them all by reaching the heightened realms of George Orwell. It really is that good.Alexei (Oleg Menshikov) and the beautiful, sensational Marie (Sandrine Bonnaire) are a married couple in France who naively believe the Soviet Union to be a socialist/communist paradise. They promptly pack their backs and emigrate, arriving in Odessa with their son to settle down and start a new life. But they realise almost immediately, however, their dreadful mistake: they have entered not socialist heaven but an Orwellian nightmare of totalitarianism, brutality and deprivation from which there appears no escape.At this point, the film really takes off, becoming an awesome, intoxicating blend of Dr Zhivago, Spy Who Came in From the Cold, 1984 and Day of the Jackal. Only, it surpasses them all.Perhaps it is the Russian contribution that makes the difference, turning this film into a masterpiece: Sergei Bodrov and Rustam Ibragimbekov providing a simply brilliant script. The acting is superb and the plot is riveting, even depending on the outcome of a swimming trial and the chance to travel to the West and defect.The location filming is sublime and the Odessa depicted on screen has all of the faded charm of classical buildings and dachas decayed by years of communist neglect and overcrowding. It is just so realistic.Sandrine has a bit of fun along the way, going to communist dances and concerts, enjoying a love affair with Sergei Bodrov Jnr, the master-swimmer, but, ultimately, is betrayed and undergoes severe torture and brainwashing, like something out of Arthur Koestler. That is before the denouement, however, which has all of the drama and pace of a John le Carre novel.

East/West bears light on the tragic outcome that happened to many emigres returning to Soviet Union in their help to rebuild it after the war. But at the same time, it just seemed that the husband/wife in this movie never had anything really solid in the first place for them to lose once they got there. I never really felt their gradual separation or the husband's shift from leaving the Soviets ASAP to building a life there.All in all, the movie still brings to light one of the dark period of Soviet history through the perspective of someone experiencing it.