East / West movie storyline. From the director of Academy Award-winning Indochine comes another highly acclaimed film. Academy Award-nominated (1999) for Best Foreign Language Film, Eabk / West (Est / Ouest) is a wonderfully imagined film that follows the plight of a young couple and their child as they choose to go back to the Soviet Union in 1946.
At the end of the war, Stalin invited Russians who fled the country to return.The talented young doctor, Alexei Golovine (Oleg Menchikov), accompanied by his French bride, the beautiful Marie (Sandrine Bonnaire), and their son optimistically return to the Soviet Union. Their arrival is a rude one. Interrogations are followed by the grim reality of post-war Soviet Union: shared apartments, suspicious neighbors and lack of privacy.
Marie soon starts to rebel against the circumstances, but her husband finds that his talents are needed and appreciated by the authorities so he starts to get ahead. Marie meets up with a touring French actress (Catherine Deneuve), and soon faces a terrifying choice: to leave her husband and child for freedom or stay and confront a grim future.
East / West (French: Est-Ouest; Russian: Восток-Запад) is a 1999 internationally co-produced film 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.
East / West (1999)
Directed by: Régis Wargnier
Starring: Sandrine Bonnaire, Catherine Deneuve, Oleg Menshikov, Bohdan Stupka, Sergey Bodrov, Tatyana Dogileva, Erwan Baynaud, Tania Massalitinova, Valentin Ganev
Screenplay by: Rustam Ibragimbekov, Sergei Bodrov, Régis Wargnier
Production Design by: Aleksey Levchenko, Vladimir Svetozarov
Cinematography by: Laurent Dailland
Film Editing by: Hervé Schneid
Costume Design by: Pierre-Yves Gayraud
Set Decoration by: Rossitsa Bakeva, Svetlana Filakhtova, Garabed Garabedian, Yvetta Kotcheva, Mikhail Levtchenko, Jean-Philippe Reverdot, Tzvetana Yankova
Art Direction by: Vitali Kholovtchouk, Vladimir Svetozarov
Music by: Patrick Doyle
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence and brief sensuality.
Distributed by: Union Générale Cinématographique (UGC)
Release Date: May 5, 1999
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