With World War II over, Stalin invited Soviet emigrants to return to the motherland. However, much of it was a scheme to arrest anyone suspected of anti-Soviet activities. Régis Wargnier's "Est - Ouest" ("East/West" in English) focuses on a Russian man (Oleg Menshikov) and his French wife (Sandrine Bonnaire) who return to the Soviet Union, but are not allowed to leave. They are essentially prisoners in their new country.
The focus is the people who experienced this in the USSR, but I saw it as an analogy to people anywhere who move to another country in search of a better life but find a whole new round of hardship, even in the United States. It's especially dangerous when the country is run by a fanatic (see what I'm getting at?).
It's certainly one of the grimmest movies that you'll ever see, but I recommend it. Mind you, it's not for the fainthearted. Also watch Wargnier's other collaboration with Catherine Deneuve, 1992's Oscar-winning "Indochine" (about 1930s Vietnam).
The focus is the people who experienced this in the USSR, but I saw it as an analogy to people anywhere who move to another country in search of a better life but find a whole new round of hardship, even in the United States. It's especially dangerous when the country is run by a fanatic (see what I'm getting at?).
It's certainly one of the grimmest movies that you'll ever see, but I recommend it. Mind you, it's not for the fainthearted. Also watch Wargnier's other collaboration with Catherine Deneuve, 1992's Oscar-winning "Indochine" (about 1930s Vietnam).