East-West: Movie, DVD Review (2008)

Directed by Regis Wargnier, written (in French and Russian, with English subtitles) by Roustam Ibraguimbek, Serguei Bodrov, Louis Gardel and Wargnier, 120 minutes, rated PG-13.

Editor's Note: East-West was released in 2000. In going over some of the 4,000 movie reviews that have yet to make it on this site, I remembered while reading this review just how good the film is. If you're seeking a break from the current summer fare, try adding this to your NetFlix queue. Below is the original review:

Murder, hope, love and betrayal come together seamlessly in Regis Wargnier’s “East-West,” a moving, haunting and ultimately harrowing film about Stalinism that captures the mood of a time and the lives of a people.

One of this year’s Academy Award nominees for Best Foreign Film (it lost to Pedro Almodovar’s “All About My Mother”), “East-West” is filled with all the drama and disillusionment one would expect from a film examining the iron fist of Stalinism, but it wisely never gives itself over to moments of ripe melodrama or staunch politicizing.

It’s backed by a director and writers who acknowledge Stalin’s evil, while also recognizing that those who followed him weren’t necessarily evil. The result is a film layered with an uncommon emotional complexity, the human landscape examined with a clarity only the passing of time can offer.

The film opens in 1946 France at the end of World War II with Josef Stalin opening his arms to Russian exiles, those expatriates living away who were invited back to the Motherland to help rebuild her after the ravages of war.

We love you, we need you, so please come home was Stalin’s message, which thousands of homesick men and women took to heart and sadly to their graves.

Indeed, as Aleksei Golovine (Oleg Menchikov), his French wife, Marie (Sandrine Bonnaire), and their son, Serioja (Ruben Tapiero at 7 and Erwan Baynaud at 14) learn almost immediately upon re-entering Aleksei’s native homeland, Stalin’s message was a cruel hoax. Even before they set foot on the docks at Odessa, the family witnesses the grisly execution of a fellow passenger gunned down for having second thoughts about repatriation.

With Catherine Deneuve and Serguei Bodrov Jr. terrific in key supporting roles, “East-West” mounts a satisfying, daring plot to get the Golovine’s out of Russia and back West to freedom.

Who makes it out, who stays under Communist rule, who lives and who dies won’t be revealed here, but know this: The film’s last 30 minutes are so genuinely tense and unnerving, they do what the best film’s do--linger in the mind long after the screen fades to black.

Grade: A-