East / West

Aroview: A 'woman's picture' in the proudest sense of the term, this lush historical melodrama from the dir. of INDOCHINE again finds a French woman in a foreign land. Sandrine Bonnaire plays the wife of an equitable Russian doctor (Oleg Menchikov) who has been repatriated into the Cold War nightmare of Stalin's post-war Soviet Union. Her plans for escape coincide with those of a handsome Russian swimmer (Sergey Bodrov, Jnr.), a union that forces her to personally confront issues of loyalty and betrayal.

NZ International Film Festival 2000