Est - Ouest (1999)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Régis Wargnier

Writers:

Rustam Ibragimbekov (scenario and dialogue) and
Sergei Bodrov (scenario and dialogue) ...

Release Date:

1 September 1999 (France)

Genre:

Romance | Drama

Plot:

June 1946: Stalin invites Russian emigres to return to the motherland. It's a trap: when a ship-load from France arrives in Odessa...

Plot Keywords:

Passport | Sexual Promiscuity | Iron Curtain | Swimming | Josef Stalin

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Oleg Menshikov	...	Aleksei Golovin (as Oleg Menchikov)
Sandrine Bonnaire	...	Marie, his wife
Catherine Deneuve	...	Gabrielle Develay
Sergei Bodrov Jr.	...	Sasha Vasilyev (as Sergueï Bodrov Jr)
Ruben Tapiero	...	Seryozha, age 7
Erwan Baynaud	...	Seryozha, age 14
Grigori Manukov	...	Pirogov (as Grigori Manoukov)
Tatyana Dogileva	...	Olga (as Tatiana Doguileva)
Bogdan Stupka	...	Colonel Boyko
Meglena Karalambova	...	Nina Fyodorovna
Atanass Atanassov	...	Viktor
Tania Massalitinova	...	Anastasia Aleksandrovna
Valentin Ganev	...	Volodya Petrov
Nikolai Binev	...	Sergei Kozlov (as Nikolaï Binev)
René Féret	...	Ambassadeur de France

Also Known As:

Восток-Запад (Russia)
Изток - Запад (Bulgaria: Bulgarian title)
East-West (Europe: English title)
La vida prometida (Spain)
[Est]Ouest (France) (poster title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence and brief sensuality.

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

Bulgaria | France | Russia | Spain | Ukraine

Language:

French | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Malaysia:18PL | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | France:U | Germany:12 (w) | New Zealand:M | Peru:14 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | USA:PG-13 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Burgas, Bulgaria

Company:

UGC YM

Trivia:

The two main Russian actors (Oleg Menshikov and Sergei Bodrov Jr.) do not speak French. They memorized all the lines phonetically.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: When Marie goes to the KGB building in Kiev and Alexei finds her there, persuading her to leave, the viewer can read a sign on the building that says, in Cyrillic letters, "Ministerstvo na..." This is a Bulgarian genitive construction, meaning "The Ministry of..." The only Slavic languages that show the genitive case in this fashion are Bulgarian and Macedonian. The genitive case is marked differently in Russian and Ukrainian, which shows that the "KGB" building could not actually have been in Kiev. This makes sense because the film was partially shot in Bulgaria.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Femme Fatale (2002)

Hard to take but worth watching

For a guy who was a French communist until the age of 35, it was a hard movie to take, but it is a superb film, well acted and very realistic. My father was a french communist (the heart on the left and the wallet on the right) and he actually contempleted emigrating to the motherland of socialism when I was a kid, thank God, his wallet was heavier than his heart... Go to your video store and rent it, you won't regret it !