East/West(Est - Ouest)

Name: East/West
Genre: Drama, Romance

✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews

Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria

1999

Rated PG-13 · 2h 1m

Director Régis Wargnier

Starring Catherine Deneuve, Sandrine Bonnaire, Oleg Menshikov, Sergei Bodrov Jr.

Genre Drama, Romance

In June 1946, Stalin invites Russian emigres to return to the motherland. It's a trap: when a ship-load from France arrives in Odessa, only a physician and his family are spared execution or prison. He and his French wife are sent to Kiev. She wants to return to France immediately; however, he knows that they are captives and must watch every step.

Stream East/West

US availabilities powered by JustWatch

WHAT ARE PEOPLE SAYING?

Be the first to comment about this film.

WHAT ARE CRITICS SAYING?

Baltimore Sun by Ann Hornaday

One of the unique virtues of the cinema is its ability to bring history to life with engrossing detail and gripping immediacy; East-West does this.

San Francisco Chronicle by Bob Graham

It is well-made in an old-fashioned way, and its straight-arrow lack of cynicism may be old- fashioned as well.

The New York Times by Dana Stevens

Wargnier's sumptuous, moving new film, captures both the hope of the returning Russians and their brutal betrayal.

New York Daily News by Jami Bernard

Feels like an old-fashioned movie in the way it deals with bold sacrifices made in the name of love, while its setting and chary view of the era's political machinations mark it as distinctly modern.

New York Post by Jonathan Foreman

The movie that deserved to win the Oscar for foreign-language film, and one of the best movies ever made about life behind the Iron Curtain.

Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman

Picks up steam from the ominous opening scene and ends as a quietly suspenseful thriller.

Village Voice by Leslie Camhi

Wargnier has assembled a stellar French and Russian cast, but all that talent can't overcome his heavy-handed screenplay.

Austin Chronicle by Marjorie Baumgarten

Although it's interesting and well-performed, East-West never locates its crux: It's all over the map.

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

Director Regis Warginer ("Indochine") lets his film degenerate into a turgid melodrama.

TV Guide Magazine by Stephen Miller

It's Deneuve, in little more than a cameo, who commands your attention and doesn't release you until she's good and ready.

Login

Create your account

Reset your password here