Est - Ouest

Shot in dark tones of the Soviet popular colors, this movie will transport you right into the heart of the Communist system during the 1950's Stalin period. Within half an hour you'll be sorry that you came, because the director will make you fear for the unlikely heroes. You'll be holding to your chair and crave for the safety of your favorite TV soap.

To call it a political thriller is not doing justice to the emotional overtone of the story of Marie and her husband Alexey. Director's rendition of the Marie's courage hidden in the simplest acts is quite dazzling. That, and good acting is the major "special effect" of this film, theme of which cannot be dismissed as a history to be forgotten. A system similar to the Soviet communism may sprout in any country, and the fate of the condemned people may depend on the valour of both insiders and the citizen of the free world.

Don't worry, the movie is not moralizing. Do yourself a favor, go to see it - if the political system of your country permits you to do so (if it does not, smuggle it in and invite all your friends).

"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.

For a guy who was a French communist until the age of 35, it was a hard movie to take, but it is a superb film, well acted and very realistic. My father was a french communist (the heart on the left and the wallet on the right) and he actually contempleted emigrating to the motherland of socialism when I was a kid, thank God, his wallet was heavier than his heart... Go to your video store and rent it, you won't regret it !

This movie hit pretty close to home. I am a first generation American. Everyone else in my family left the USSR(Ukraine) in the 1970's.

One of the many reasons they left is because of the daily life problems that this movie depicts. People were afraid to say anything, or express their thoughts even remotely on how they felt about life in thing wrong with it. If they did so they would be either murdered thrown in jail or taken away never to be heard from again. East West is a well made and easy to understand film that can be enjoyed by a lot of mainstream audiences.

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