Eastern PromisesThere are two worlds: the world in the light, and the world in the shadows. The everyday world of law-abiding citizens, and the world of organized crime, where lives are treated cheaply. David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises is a mob story of two worlds, but it is moreover a moral story, about recognizing right from wrong and knowing your place along the spectrum, even if you must step outside of it. Meeting at the threshold of these two worlds are Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen), a "driver" for the Russian mob--the "Vory v Zakone"--based out of London and Anna Khitrova (Naomi Watts), a nurse who begins to unravel the mystery of a dead teenage mother named Tatiana (Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse/Tatiana Maslany).
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Anna is a nurse on duty at the hospital who assists when the dying Tatiana in giving birth to her baby--who Anna dubs Christine, in honor of the impending Christmas holiday. Following Tatiana's death, Anna takes her diary from her purse; she later kids her mother, Helen (Sinéad Cusack), whom she has moved back in with after breaking up with her boyfriend, that she always takes objects from dead patients. Anna is a "midwife", and feels responsible for finding the next of kin for Christine after Tatiana dies a mere minute before Christine's own birth; the diary represents her only clue to discovering her past. As the diary is written in Russian, and Anna is only half-Russian and speaks only English fluently, she asks her Uncle Stepan (Jerzy Skolimowski) to translate it for her, as she follows up on a lead presented in the form of a card for a place called the "Trans-Siberian Restaurant". It is here that Anna meets the initially amiable proprietor, Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), who shows off his gentle side by instructing a pair of young girls in the ways of the violin and asking Anna to try his borsht, which she says is like how her "father used to make it". But when Anna lets it slip that she has been trying to find the family of Tatiana by means of her diary--who Semyon initially indicates he doesn't know--Semyon suddenly takes a special interest in helping her, and makes seemingly innocent inquiries into her residence and tries to get the diary away from her. It is not long after that his pursuits become more dogged, and we discover that Semyon is the leader of the Vory v Zakone in London, with his boisterous son, Kirill (Vincent Cassel) as his second. Just under Kirill is Nikolai, who is the yin to Kirill's yang. Where Kirill indulges in excess--booze, parties, flouting his prestige--Nikolai is the stoic and cold-as-ice Russian enforcer. Anna and Nikolai only pass tangentially at first--he offers to buy her motorcycle, but Anna refuses on the grounds that it has sentimental value as it was her father's. But when Anna returns to Semyon to try to get the help he offered in translating the copy of the diary she made, Anna finds her motorcycle won't start. Nikolai tries to help her but cannot get it going, recounting a story about how the postmen in his village in Russia used to deliver the mail on motorcycles like these, and the two begin to bond in a way surrounding their shared heritage.
London--like many other international cities--is the kind of place where everyone can seem to be a stranger in a strange land. Although Anna was born in England, it is evident that Nikolai was not. He serves in the world of organized crime, and the tattoos adorning his body represent his calling card. This piece of detail is authentic to the way that the actual Russian mob represents their achievements, their character, and their exploits, a practice shared by other crime syndicates across the globe. The symbol of a high-ranking member of the Vory v Zakone is a star, which also resembles a kind of crown. The upper echelon are called vor, and their status is treated not unlike royalty within their world. Nikolai's skills also include the knowledge of how to professionally dispose of a body, a skill which is put into practice when he and Kirill are called upon to eliminate the body of a man in their organization Kirill had killed. Nikolai's talent is that he can detach himself emotionally from a situation, showing no remorse at as gruesome of a task as using pruning shears to snip off the fingertips at the knuckle of the corpse he is "working on". Nikolai's loyalty and tact are skills which help him go far in the Vory v Zakone, but also kindle a jealously in Kirill, who feels that his father, Semyon is imparting knowledge unto Nikolai he will not share with his own son. As Stepan translates the diary of Tatiana, he becomes increasingly disturbed by the shocking content contained within. He reveals the content to Anna, and we hear the voice of the dead girl through periodic narration, which grows increasingly destitute and depressing. Tatiana recalls that her father died in a cave in as a miner in old Russia, and she was invited to come and sing in a cabaret in England, where promises of wealth and fame awaited her. But as she eventually learned, those promises--made by the Vory v Zakone to lure her into a sex trafficking ring--were not just hollow, they were outright lies. A scene where Nikolai is pressed into having sex with a young woman at a brothel by Kirill--who takes an uncomfortable interest in witnessing Nikolai consummate the act, under the auspices that he is not a "queer", which his father hates--ends with Nikolai looking down at the naked girl, and offering her a generous tip; not for services rendered, but so she may "live a little longer", and gives her a card embossed with the image of the Virgin Mary. Tatiana has already died, but her diary is her legacy, her testimony to forewarn other girls like her from being lured into the world of shadows by evil men and false promises.
Recommended for: Fans of a serious and clever thriller set against the backdrop of a mob story. Many films by Cronenberg feature characters who are fiercely dedicated to an ideology; uncovering Nikolai's is one of the most satisfying parts of Eastern Promises.
London--like many other international cities--is the kind of place where everyone can seem to be a stranger in a strange land. Although Anna was born in England, it is evident that Nikolai was not. He serves in the world of organized crime, and the tattoos adorning his body represent his calling card. This piece of detail is authentic to the way that the actual Russian mob represents their achievements, their character, and their exploits, a practice shared by other crime syndicates across the globe. The symbol of a high-ranking member of the Vory v Zakone is a star, which also resembles a kind of crown. The upper echelon are called vor, and their status is treated not unlike royalty within their world. Nikolai's skills also include the knowledge of how to professionally dispose of a body, a skill which is put into practice when he and Kirill are called upon to eliminate the body of a man in their organization Kirill had killed. Nikolai's talent is that he can detach himself emotionally from a situation, showing no remorse at as gruesome of a task as using pruning shears to snip off the fingertips at the knuckle of the corpse he is "working on". Nikolai's loyalty and tact are skills which help him go far in the Vory v Zakone, but also kindle a jealously in Kirill, who feels that his father, Semyon is imparting knowledge unto Nikolai he will not share with his own son. As Stepan translates the diary of Tatiana, he becomes increasingly disturbed by the shocking content contained within. He reveals the content to Anna, and we hear the voice of the dead girl through periodic narration, which grows increasingly destitute and depressing. Tatiana recalls that her father died in a cave in as a miner in old Russia, and she was invited to come and sing in a cabaret in England, where promises of wealth and fame awaited her. But as she eventually learned, those promises--made by the Vory v Zakone to lure her into a sex trafficking ring--were not just hollow, they were outright lies. A scene where Nikolai is pressed into having sex with a young woman at a brothel by Kirill--who takes an uncomfortable interest in witnessing Nikolai consummate the act, under the auspices that he is not a "queer", which his father hates--ends with Nikolai looking down at the naked girl, and offering her a generous tip; not for services rendered, but so she may "live a little longer", and gives her a card embossed with the image of the Virgin Mary. Tatiana has already died, but her diary is her legacy, her testimony to forewarn other girls like her from being lured into the world of shadows by evil men and false promises.
Recommended for: Fans of a serious and clever thriller set against the backdrop of a mob story. Many films by Cronenberg feature characters who are fiercely dedicated to an ideology; uncovering Nikolai's is one of the most satisfying parts of Eastern Promises.