Back to trending
East/West

East/West

Drama · Romance · 1999

June 1946: Stalin invites Russian emigres to return to the motherland. It's a trap: when a ship-load from France arrives in Odessa, only a physician and his family are spared execution or prison. He and his French wife (her passport ripped up) are sent to Kiev. She wants to return to France immediately; he knows that they are captives and must watch every step.

Movie details

East/West

“An unforgettable story of love, betrayal and survival.”

1999 Drama · Romance 2h 1m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.4 / 10

Community rating

June 1946: Stalin invites Russian emigres to return to the motherland. It's a trap: when a ship-load from France arrives in Odessa, only a physician and his family are spared execution or prison. He and his French wife (her passport ripped up) are sent to Kiev. She wants to return to France immediately; he knows that they are captives and must watch every step.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over East/West?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Lady J

Lady J

Drama · 2018

When a romance between a widow and a notorious libertine takes an unexpected turn, Mademoiselle de Joncquières becomes instrumental to one lover’s plans for revenge.

Private Fears in Public Places

Private Fears in Public Places

Drama · 2006

Seven lonely lives in Paris: a middle-aged estate agent who believes a colleague is sending messages in video tapes she loans him; his co-worker whose Bible is close at hand in times of stress; her late-night charge, an angry, nasty bedridden old man; his son, a patient bartender; the bartender's best patron, an ex-soldier who's lost his moorings while his fiancée looks for a large flat for them; and, the estate agent's much younger sister, who answers personals and waits in cafés with a red flower pinned on her jacket. Will any connect? Can open hearts trump fears?

Luna

Luna

Drama · 2018

A film in which the director captures the beautiful and accurate qualities of reality when building the energetic portrait of a 16-year-old girl immersed in the macho culture of urban suburban south-west France, just a stone’s throw away from the nearby countryside.

My First Time

My First Time

Drama · 2012

Zachary is 20 years old. Dark and independent, he collects amorous conquests and school failure. Sarah is 18 years old. First class, fragile, she fills her emotional gaps with perfect control of his life. Nothing should close and yet, the year of the tank, for six months, they will live a love against which nothing can be, the true, the big one that marks a life forever.

Sidonie in Japan

Sidonie in Japan

Drama · 2024

Sidonie Perceval, an established French writer, is mourning her deceased husband. Invited to Japan for the reedition of her first book, she is welcomed by her local editor who takes her to Kyoto, the city of shrines and temples. As they travel together through the Japanese spring blossoms, she slowly opens up to him. But the ghost of her husband follows Sidonie: she will have to finally let go of the past to let herself love again.

I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere

I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere

Drama · 2020

In the beautiful family home, at the end of the summer, Monique celebrates her 70th birthday, surrounded by her 4 children, all of whom have come for the occasion. There is Jean-Pierre, the elder, who took on the role of head of the family after the death of his father; Juliette, pregnant with her first child at 40 and who still dreams of becoming a writer; Margaux, the family’s radical artist, and Mathieu, 30, anxious to seduce pretty Sarah. Later, one day, one of them will make a life-changing decision ...

Two English Girls

Two English Girls

Drama · 1971

In the early 20th-century, Frenchman Claude meets Englishwoman Ann in Paris. Ann invites him to her family home, intending him for her sister Muriel. Claude falls for Muriel, but families demand year-long separation before approving marriage.

Borrowed Hearts

Borrowed Hearts

Drama · 1997

Single mom Kathleen Russell (Roma Downey) and her daughter Zoey pretend to be Kathleen's boss's "family" so he can close a major business deal with the mysterious Mexican financier Javier Del Campo.

TalhotBlond

TalhotBlond

Drama · 2012

Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.

Forever First Love

Forever First Love

Drama · 2020

Paul travels the world to capture the perfect photographic moment. Amid the colour and chaos of a crowded Filipino market, destiny intervenes when Paul’s first love, Anna appears in his lens. The travellers spend the day exploring the beauty of a 16th century town and whilst passions reignite, their principles on relationships, religion and morality clash. The night they spend together will change everything.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Régis Wargnier

Written by

Rustam Ibragimbekov · Louis Gardel · Régis Wargnier · Sergei Bodrov

Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve

Gabrielle Develay

Sandrine Bonnaire

Sandrine Bonnaire

Marie

Oleg Menshikov

Oleg Menshikov

Aleksei Golovin

Sergei Bodrov Jr.

Sergei Bodrov Jr.

Sasha Vasilyev

Tatyana Dogileva

Tatyana Dogileva

Olga

Bohdan Stupka

Bohdan Stupka

Colonel Boyko

R

Ruben Tapiero

Seryozha, à 7 ans

Court is in session

Put East/West on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.