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Light from the East

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Ukraine · 2005
55m
Director Amy Grappell
Starring
Genre Documentary

A troupe of American actors travels to Kyiv to participate in the first US/Ukrainian cultural exchange theater project in Soviet history. The play they will perform is based on the life of Kurbas, a Ukrainian theatre director, murdered in one of Stalin’s purges. As rehearsals progress, the play begins to mirror action in the streets.

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What are people saying?

What are critics saying?

50

The New York Times by

Mostly the film is a testament to the egomania of the theater: despite what's going on around them, these actors can't see just how minor their modest project really is.

70

Variety by Joe Leydon

Generates genuine suspense as it follows a group of American actors in the former Soviet Union during a fateful period of the Perestroika era.

50

Village Voice by Joshua Land

Grappell implicitly uses the juxtaposition with the martyred Kurbas to gauge her commitment to her own art. Light From the East drinks freely from the triumphalist cup of the glasnost era.

50

New York Post by V.A. Musetto

Of historical interest, although a more experienced filmmaker would have made more of the sudden rush of events - and avoided the temptation to put himself or herself into nearly every frame, as Grappell does.