I really didn't like this movie. It angers me that this thing recieved an academy award of some sort. Other than the simple political message this movie was about -- it was completely empty. The characters were shallow, and the plot typical. As a russian, I was angered by the movie's portrayal of the russian people and of russian society. Communist Russia was shown like Nazzi Germany is often shown in popular films. From the very beginning as the group of expatriates get off thee boat - they are separated into two groups like the newly arrived members of nazzi concentration camps. Corruption, fear, lies predominate in this film's depiction of Soviet society. The main character becomes friends with the the woman who used to be rich and whose apartement was made into a communal flat. i don't know. If you are going to watch foreign movies *about* Russia, you should at least do yourself the favor of also watching Soviet movies: there are plenty of them, russian movies about russia, from the 50s, the 60s, the 70s. Then maybe you'll get some idea about what russian society was like. Because this movie really just capitalizes about everything that was negative about the soviet system, and does not in any way paint a realistic picture... ok well... that's just my opinion.
Review of East/West
