East/West (French: Est-Ouest; Russian: Восток-Запад, romanized: Vostok-Zapad) is a 1999 drama film directed by Régis Wargnier, starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Oleg Menshikov, Catherine Deneuve and Sergei Bodrov Jr.

A young man is shot trying to run back to his father from whom he is separated, and the Golovins begin to understand the situation they have landed in.

The family moves into a cramped apartment in a communal house in Kyiv and Alexei accepts a job overseeing workers' health in a factory.

She also approaches a visiting French actress, Gabrielle (Deneuve), and attempts to gain her help in escaping the USSR.

Her budding friendship with Sasha, who is a champion swimmer recently thrown out of the local team, becomes a vehicle of possible escape.

The ship captain at first tries to go back on the agreement, but then explains that he can't come close to shore, so Sasha attempts to swim six hours out to meet him far offshore.

A French magazine article reveals that Sasha was successful in escaping to the West, Marie is implicated and jailed for six years.

[5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews"[6] [7]