Est - Ouest

Alexei, the young doctor who decides to go back to the Soviet Union after a generous invitation of Josef Satlin, should have had his head examined! After all, as a professional he seemed to have been doing well in France. With all the best intentions, he takes his wife and young son to the old country only to find himself trapped in a totalitarian system that made him and the family virtual prisoners.

"Est Ouest", directed by Regis Wargnier, shows in vivid detail what Alexei and Marie, his wife, have to endure when they are taken to Kiev, where he is assigned. Little did Alexei and Marie knew about the dismal housing problems of those years when the family is given a large room in an apartment that is being shared by five families!

The film concentrates in the eventual break down of the marriage caused by the environment. Alexei ends up having an affair with Olga, another flat mate, and Marie falls in love for the poor Sacha, a young man who is left alone in the world when his grandmother dies. Marie blames Alexei for all the misery they have to endure; she is regarded as a foreigner, but she can't even go back to her native France.

The film has an ironic end when Marie, helped by Gabrielle, a French actress, who is sympathetic to her fellow countryman. Marie realizes at the end of Alexei's tremendous sacrifice and ultimate punishment when she and her son are able to escape the communist hell that has imprisoned them.

Great acting in general by Sandrine Bonnaire, who as Marie, is totally credible. Oleg Menshikov, makes the best of Alexei, at times appearing uncaring and selfish, but who deeply cared for his wife. Sergei Bodrov Jr. is also excellent as Sacha, the young boy in love with Marie.

The film was shot in drab color, perhaps to emphasize the hard times during the Stalin regime. One gets only glimpses of some of the splendid, and opulent interiors, whenever the action takes place in one of those buildings or theaters. Unfortunately, the principals of this story never really had a chance to enjoy anything because the nightmare that became their lives under that totalitarian regime.

For a system that endured about seventy years,it is amazing how so few movies have really given us a sense of what life there was like,and this movie does it brilliantly and flawlessly. While the background is the big falsehoods of soviet Russia,like baiting émigrés to return,only to take revenge for the sin of yearning freedom,the true power of the movie is in penetrating and superb description of everyday's life,the housing with shared common facilities,total lack of minimal privacy,"shopping"Russian style,and the pervasive drinking. I had the feeling of being and living in one of those housing units as I was watching the film. The plot is superb,full of surprising twists and the acting,all the way down to the smaller roles,is perfect. The movie is a true gem.The only achievement of the late Soviet regime is its success in hiding the true nature of life behind the Iron Curtain for so many years

I went to this film without realizing that it told a story which had parallels in the history of my own Russian-emigrant family. My grandmother's brother repatriated under Stalin, had his goods and land confiscated, died in Siberia, and lost his two young sons to the Soviet Army.

The film is absorbing and disturbing. The most shooting is done at eye level. There is a true sense of witness for the viewer in a very elemental, unavoidable way. Strangely, I think this improved the experience of the predictable horrors of life in Stalin's USSR. It made the experience seem, for me, much more present and less sentimental.

The performances were very good. Ms. Bonnaire was totally believable and very likeable, despite the naivete and hysteria of her character. Mr. Menshikov played Alexei with great complexity and nuance, which allowed me to be less judgmental and to see his irrational need to belong among his own people as a very natural inclination. Mr. Bodrov, a Russian Brad-Pitt-alike, was very magnetic in his role as Sacha.

I simply love to see Ms. Deneuve in any role, but her playing a mature French actress with admirable values was very moving for me. She carries her own maturity so regally. She was perfect for this role.

I think this film is a wonderful model of cross-cultural cinema. I would like to see more films of this type in the US.

In 1946, Stalin invites Russian émigrés to return, in patriotic fervor, to help rebuild from WWII. Unbeknownst to them, all returnees are considered imperialists and spies, and are to be treated accordingly. "East-West" explores this nightmare scenario through the eyes of a family who returned; a Russian doctor, his French wife and their young son. Because of his doctoring skills he is spared the Gulag or execution, but his life in Kiev is certainly not what his wife is used to. The collision of cultures, the hardships, and the Stalinist tyranny all take a deep toll as they struggle to survive and escape.

Dark, and claustrophobic, this is a gripping tale from beginning to end. And it is in the end a great love story, of devotion and sacrifice. At the showing I attended the tears flowed freely in the audience. I recommend it highly.

"East/West" ventures into a time (post WWII) when the Iron Curtain shrouded Stalin's Soviet Union and a curtain of suspicion and distrust shrouded every soviet life. The film follows a French family of three as the patriarch returns to his Russian homeland where he and his family are held prisoners of conscience by communism. The film focuses on the characters, their silent suffering and yearning for freedom while living in a state of constant paranoia as it tears husband from wife, mother from son, and heroism emerges from the most unlikely places. "East/West" is an entertaining watch for all and, though fictional, offers a sense of what the Cold War was about.