East/West

Infobox_Film
name = East/West (Est-Ouest)


image_size = 175px
caption=
director = Régis Wargnier
producer = Yves Marmion
writer = Rustam Ibragimbekov
Sergei Bodrov
Régis Wargnier
starring = Sandrine Bonnaire
Catherine Deneuve
Oleg Menshikov
cinematography = Laurent Dailland
editing =
distributor = Union Générale Cinématographique (UGC)
country = Bulgaria / France / Russia / Spain / Ukraine
released = 1999
runtime = 121 min
language = flagicon|France French
flagicon|Russia Russian
imdb_id = 0181530
music = Patrick Doyle
editing = Hervé Schneid
awards =
budget =
amg_id = 1:180999

"East/West" (French: "Est-Ouest"; Russian title: "Восток-Запад") is a French (-Ukrainian-Russian-Spanish-Bulgarian) film (1999) directed by Régis Wargnier, starring Sandrine Bonnaire (as Marie), Oleg Menshikov (as Alexei), Sergei Bodrov Jr. (as Sasha) and Catherine Deneuve (as Gabrielle). Authors of scenario and dialogue: Rustam Ibragimbekov, Sergei Bodrov, Louis Gardel and Régis Wargnier.

Plot Synopsis

After the Second World War, former White Emigres are offered Soviet citizenship, amnesty and an invitation to return to the Motherland, so that they could join in the post-war restructuring. While most of the émigrés decide to remain abroad, there are many people anxious to return to the ‘Holy Russia’. Among the returnees are Alexei Golovin (Oleg Menshikov), his French wife Marie (Sandrine Bonnaire)and their son Sergey. But Stalin's offer was merely a tactical step. On arrival in Odessa, many of their travelling companions are executed on the spot or sent to the GULAG. Alexei and his family escape this fate and are sent to Kiev simply because the Soviet authorities realise that they have much to gain from this young doctor. He will be paraded as an example, a model "returnee". This is the price Alexei has to pay to save Marie and Seriozha.

He is posted to the infirmary of a textile factory and he and his family are allocated a single room in a communal apartment. The "kommunalka" is to become Marie's new home, where a complete lack of privacy, denunciations from neighbors and NKVD arrest raids are a reality of daily life. Despite the strength of their marriage, Alexei and Marie gradually grow apart. Alexei conforms, accepts, and bides his time. Marie, however, refuses, bridles and has one sole aim: to return to France. But all her attempts are blocked by Alexei.

When a French theatre group, led by the famous actress, Gabrielle Develay (Catherine Deneuve), arrives in Kiev on tour, Marie knows that this is her chance to alert the French Government. Marie manages to get through to Gabrielle and hand her a letter. When they get home, Marie throws Alexei out of their apartment, unable to bear his submissiveness to Stalin or his infidelity any longer.

Marie finds a solace in her seventeen-year-old neighbor, Sasha (Sergei Bodrov Jr.), a competitive swimmer whose ability has kept him out of military service. Even after being thrown off the team, Sasha continues training, thanks to Marie's efforts. Every day, she takes him down to the river to swim alone against the current. Marie and Sasha share one wild hope: that he will get back and win selection for the European championships in Vienna. Once there, Sacha will be able to defect to the West, but it will be freedom without Marie, whom he loves. Marie is resolute, however. He must go, for freedom is what is the most important.

Sacha wins the national race but falls under KGB suspicion and is still not selected for Vienna. He is sent to a training camp on the Black Sea, to remove him from Marie's "dangerous" influence. Alone and despondent, Marie reunites with Alexei.

Sasha, however, refuses to give up, escapes from his training camp, and swims 10 miles to a Turkish freighter. When his story explodes across the Western news media, the Soviet authorities are enraged. Despite Alexei's attempts to save her, Marie is arrested by the KGB and confesses under torture to masterminding Sasha's defection as part of a CIA plot. She is then sentenced to a long term in the GULAG.

Six years later, during the Khrushchev thaw, Alexei succeeds in overturning Marie's conviction. She is released, a broken and traumatized woman who no longer hopes for anything. Through Alexei's nursing and love, she slowly comes out of her shell.

Two years later, while acompanying a trade mission to Bulgaria, Alexei finally lays his cards on the table. Gabrielle is waiting in the lobby to take her and Seriozha to the French embassy. "I have been waiting ten years for this," he says. Marie is overcome with emotion and pleads with him to come along. Alexei sadly responds, "The Embassy will protect you, but I am a Soviet citizen."

Marie and Seriozha flee from the hotel and are barely saved from arrest by Bulgarian police. When Gabrielle informs her that she is now on French soil, Marie faints, calling out her husband's name.

An epilogue reveals that, amidst an international uproar, Marie and Seriozha were exfiltrated across the Greek-Bulgarian border. Alexei was sentenced to a long term in the GULAGs of Sakhalin Island. He walked aboard the prison train smiling at the knowledge that his family was free.

Awards

*Best Foreign Language Film (nominee) - - 1999 Golden Globe
*Best Actress (nom) - Sandrine Bonnaire - 1999 French Academy of Cinema
*Best French Film (nom) - - 1999 French Academy of Cinema
*Best Director (nom) - Regis Wargnier - 1999 French Academy of Cinema
*Best Music (nom) - Patrick Doyle - 1999 French Academy of Cinema
*Best Foreign Language Film (nom) - Regis Wargnier - 1999 Academy
*Best Foreign Film (nom) - 1999 National Board of Review
*Oscar (nom) 2000 - Best Foreign Language Film
*Miami Film Festival 2000 (won) - Audience Award
*Palm Springs International Film Festival 2000 (won) - Audience Award
*Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2000 (won) - Audience Choice Award

ources

* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=180999 NYT]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181530/awards IMDB]

External links

* [http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/eastwest/synopsis/index.html Official homepage, offers e.g. a synopsis as well as the director's note]
* [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=180999 Various information; on New York Times website]