10 More Movies That Have Different Endings In Different Countries

Pavel Chukhrai's all but forgotten 1997 Venice Film Festival multi-prize winner and 1998 Academy Award nominee The Thief tells the story of Katya (Yekaterina Rednikova) who falls for Soviet soldier Tolyan (Vladimir Mashkov). Tolyan turns out to be a career criminal, and Katya is torn between the dual realities of Tolyan's violent nature and his new position as a father figure to her six-year-old son Sanya (Misha Philipchuk).

Now, changing cultural artefacts to accommodate different political and cultural leanings has a long, storied history in Russia. Altering the conclusions of Hollywood films to align them with the assumed or dictated tastes of the Russian people was common practice before, during and after the Soviet Union - and often meant foregoing happy endings altogether.

On the flip side, however, the US distributors of The Thief made the director change his original epilogue set in Chechnya. The mood of the national community towards Russia was far from positive in the late '90s, for how the country was conducting itself in the Chechen Wars. Thus, the decision was made that non-Russian audiences wouldn't appreciate a Russian director going anywhere near this subject.