Eastern Promises (2007)

David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen follow up 2005's A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE with another joint effort in EASTERN PROMISES. The film takes place in rainswept London, with Mortensen effortlessly inhabiting the role of a chauffeur (named Nikolai) for the Russian Mafia. The stoic Nikolai works for restaurant owner and powerful Mafia kingpin Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and his out-of-control son Kirill (Vincent Cassel). Cronenberg adds a few generous splashes of blood-red to his otherwise deeply grey cinematic palette as the movie begins, then allows his central storyline to unfold. Midwife Anna (Naomi Watts) comes c...
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rashing into Nikolai's life after discovering the diary of a young Russian woman who dies while giving birth, and her dealings with Semyon, and a subsequent translation of the diary, provide some horrific discoveries. Anna soon finds herself floundering in an alien world full of brutal and bloody violence, and it's not long before her own life hangs perilously in the balance.

Fans of A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE will find much to enjoy here, as will longstanding Cronenberg fans who have stuck with the director since his early low-budget horror days. Plenty of themes, ideas, and obsessions that have run right through the director's body of work are present, and he appears to have found a very effective muse in Mortensen. The chief talking points of the film will almost certainly revolve around Mortensen's extended nude sequence and the graphic killings and fight sequences, but EASTERN PROMISES is a weighty piece of work that will undoubtedly attract fans of intelligent, well-crafted thrillers.
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Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Vincent Cassel star in this David Cronenberg's thriller concerning a London midwife who unwittingly stumbles into a clandestine Russian sex trafficking ring. An unidentified Russian teen has been rushed to a London hospital after going into labor. Though midwife Anna Khitrova (Watts) does manage to deliver a healthy baby girl, the newborn's mother dies tragically during delivery. But the deceased mother's secrets did not die with her, because she has left behind a diary. Determined to ensure the newborn is placed with her rightful family, Anna attempts to rea...
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d the diary and discovers a business card for a local restaurant therein. Upon visiting the restaurant Anna is greeted by kindly owner Semyon (Mueller-Stahl), who generously offers to translate it for her. But Semyon is not what he appears to be, and before long Anna begins to fear that the child could be in great danger. Semyon admits to Anna that the diary contains information about his son Kirill (Cassell) that could land the volatile offspring in jail despite the fact that Kirill is at heart a good person. As the truth begins to unfold and Anna begins to believe that Kirill and his driver Nikolai (Mortensen) - an ambitious driver seeking to ascent the ranks of the notorious Russian mafia - mean the baby harm, an underworld storm begins to brew that could consume all involved.
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Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin is a driver for one of London's most notorious organized crime families of Eastern European origin. The family itself is part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood. Headed by Semyon, whose courtly charm as the proprietor of the plush Trans-Siberian restaurant masks a cold and brutal core, the family's fortunes are tested by Semyon's volatile son and enforcer, Kirill, who is more tightly bound to Nikolai than to his own father. But Nikolai's existence is jarred once he crosses paths at Christmastime with Anna Khitrova, a midwife at a North London hospital. Anna is deeply affected by...
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a young teenager who dies while giving birth to a baby. Anna resolves to try to trace the baby's lineage and relatives. Anna's mother Helen does not discourage her, but Anna's irascible Russian-born uncle Stepan urges caution. By delving into the diary, Anna accidentally unleashes the full fury of the Vory. With Semyon and Kirill closing ranks and Anna pressing her inquiries, Nikolai finds his loyalties divided. The family tightens its grip on him; who can, or should, he trust? Several lives--including his own--hang in the balance as a chain of murder, deceit and retribution reverberates through the darkest corners of both the family and London itself.
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Anna is een idealistische vrouw in wier armen een jonge Russische moeder sterft tijdens een geboorte. Anna weet niks van de vrouw en haar handtasje is de enige houvast die ze heeft naar de identiteit. Haar zoektocht leidt haar diep in de wereld van de Russische maffia in Londen en diens nieuwste lid: Nicolaï. Nicolaï is ingehuurd als de man die vermoorde tegenstanders van de bende onherkenbaar moet maken en het blijkt dat een dagboek in het handtasje van de Russische bewijzen bezit tegen Nicolaï’s baas.

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