East/West is a 1999 French (-Ukrainian-Russian-Spanish-Bulgarian) film directed by
Régis WargnierRégis Wargnier is a French film director, film producer, screenwriter, actor and film score composer.-Director:*1986 : La Femme de ma vie starring Jane Birkin*1988 : Sueurs froides...
, starring
Sandrine BonnaireSandrine Bonnaire is a French actress, who has appeared in more than 40 films including Hollywood movies.Bonnaire was born in the town of Gannat, Allier, in the Auvergne region. She was born into a working-class family, the seventh of eleven children. Her acting career began at the age of 16 in...
(as Marie),
Oleg MenshikovOleg Evgenyevich Menshikov ; is a Russian entertainer. He is a film and theatre actor, singer and director. He started his film career in the early 1980s playing in the comedy Pokrovskie vorota and in Nikita Mikhalkov's Rodnya....
(as Alexei),
Sergei Bodrov Jr.Sergei Bodrov Jr. was a Russian actor who had lead roles in the movies Brother, Prisoner of the Mountains, The Stringer and Brother 2. He was the son of the Russian playwright, actor, director and producer Sergei Bodrov...
(as Sasha) and
Catherine DeneuveCatherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
(as Gabrielle). Authors of scenario and dialogue:
Rustam IbragimbekovRustam Mammad Ibrahim oglu Ibrahimbeyov, also spelled Ibragimbekov is Azerbaijani, Soviet and an Azerbaijani-American screenwriter, dramatist and producer, well known beyond his home Azerbaijan and the CIS....
,
Sergei BodrovSergei Vladimirovich Bodrov is a two-time Academy Award-nominated Russian-American film director, screenwriter, and producer.Bodrov was born in Khabarovsk, Russian SFSR, USSR . In the post-Soviet period he emigrated to the United States. His son, actor Sergei Bodrov, Jr...
,
Louis GardelLouis Gardel is a notable French novelist, screenwriter, and publisher, born in Algiers in 1939. He is also publishing director of Éditions du Seuil and a permanent member of the Prix Renaudot jury.- Bibliography :* L'Été fracassé...
and
Régis WargnierRégis Wargnier is a French film director, film producer, screenwriter, actor and film score composer.-Director:*1986 : La Femme de ma vie starring Jane Birkin*1988 : Sueurs froides...
.
Plot
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 MenshikovOleg Evgenyevich Menshikov ; is a Russian entertainer. He is a film and theatre actor, singer and director. He started his film career in the early 1980s playing in the comedy Pokrovskie vorota and in Nikita Mikhalkov's Rodnya....
), his French wife Marie (
Sandrine BonnaireSandrine Bonnaire is a French actress, who has appeared in more than 40 films including Hollywood movies.Bonnaire was born in the town of Gannat, Allier, in the Auvergne region. She was born into a working-class family, the seventh of eleven children. Her acting career began at the age of 16 in...
)
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
GULAGThe Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
. Alexei and his family escape this fate and are sent to
KievKiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
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
NKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
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 DeneuveCatherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
), 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
NKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
suspicion and is still not selected for Vienna. He is sent to a training camp on the
Black SeaThe Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, 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 nautical miles (18.5 km) 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 NKVD 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
GULAGThe Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
.
Six years later, during the
Khrushchev thawThe Khrushchev Thaw refers to the period from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s, when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were partially reversed and millions of Soviet political prisoners were released from Gulag labor camps, due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization and...
, 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
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, 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 is seen walking aboard the train back to Kiev smiling at the knowledge that his family was free. We learn that he was sent as a doctor to the GULAGs camp of Sakhalin Island and allowed only in 1987 to join his family in France.
Awards
Nominated
- 1999 Golden Globes
----Picture - Drama: American Beauty ----Picture - Musical or Comedy: Toy Story 2 ----TV Series - Drama: The Sopranos ----TV Series - Musical or Comedy: Sex and the City ...
: Best Foreign Language Film
- 1999 César Award
The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....
s:
-
- Best Film
The winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Film .-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
- Best Actress
List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:...
: Sandrine Bonnaire
- Best Director
This is the list of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Director .-1970s:-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:...
: Regis Wargnier
- Best Music: Patrick Doyle
- 1999 Academy Awards
The 72nd Academy Awards ceremony took place at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium, and was Billy Crystal's seventh time hosting the Awards. The ceremony attracted 46.53 million viewers, an audience 3.7% bigger than the previous ceremony.The Academy Awards ceremony was dominated by two films...
: Best Foreign Language Film — Regis Wargnier
- 1999 National Board of Review Awards: Best Foreign Film
Won
- 2000 Miami International Film Festival
The Miami International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Miami, Florida in the late winter. The film festival is sponsored by the Miami Film Society, which has been around since 1983....
: Audience Award
- 2000 Palm Springs International Film Festival
Palm Springs International Film Festival is a film festival held in Palm Springs, California. It was started in 1989 and is held annually in January...
: Audience Award
- 2000 Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a film festival and non-profit organization, established in 1985, that showcases independent American and international films. The SBIFF line-up includes 20 world premieres and 11 U.S. premieres, with newly expanded 11-day festival...
: Audience Choice Award
Sources
External links