Eastern Promises (2007)

Directed by

David Cronenberg

Genre

drama film, action film, gangster film, crime thriller film, thriller film, crime drama film

Country

United Kingdom, United States, Canada

Runtime

1h 41m

Rated

R

Rating

7.3 of 10 from 3,754 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A midwife in London tries to protect the baby of a teenage prostitute who died in childbirth. The diary she finds leads her into conflict with the Russian Mafia who trafficked the girl.

darktensebrutalbleakgrittysuspensefulatmosphericcold

What happens

Eastern Promises is a 2007 gangster crime thriller film directed by David Cronenberg and written by Steven Knight. Starring Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, and Armin Mueller-Stahl, the film follows Anna Khitrova (Watts), a Russian-British midwife who delivers the baby daughter of a drug-addicted 14-year-old Russian prostitute named Tatiana. After Tatiana dies in childbirth, Anna reads the girl's diary and discovers that she was trafficked by the Russian Mafia in London. When Semyon (Mueller-Stahl), the leader of the mobsters and the owner of the Trans-Siberian Restaurant, threatens the baby's life, Anna is warned off by both his immature son, Kirill (Cassel), and his menacing bodyguard and driver, Nikolai Luzhin (Mortensen). Principal photography began in London on November 19, 2006, and concluded on February 16, 2007. The film has been noted for its treatment of the subject of sex trafficking, and for its violence and realistic depiction of Russian career criminals, which includes the detailed portrayal of the tattoos which indicate their crimes and criminal status. Eastern Promises premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2007, where it won the People's Choice Award. The film was theatrically released in the United States and Canada on September 14, 2007, to critical acclaim, with particular praise for the performances of the cast. It was also a modest success at the box office, grossing $56.1 million against its $27 million production budget. Mortensen received numerous accolades for his performance, winning the Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actor, and the Saturn Award for Best Actor. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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