Eastern Promises 2007

      Tatiana is Russian teenager, she is pregnant and she arrives in London.  She goes to a hospital and she is bleeding.  The doctor can only save her baby and Tatiana dies.  Midwife Anna Khitrova is also Russian.  She finds Tatiana’s diary written in Russian and she decides to find her family to let them know about the baby.  She takes the diary home and asks her uncle Stepan to translate.  Stepan refuses but Anna finds the card of a restaurant inside the diary.  She visits another Russian Semyon and she tries to find a lead to Tatiana’s family.  Semyon also refuses to translate the diary but Stepan agrees to translate.  Anna discovers that Semyon and his son Kirill raped Tatiana when she was fourteen years old and forced her to work as a prostitute in their brothel?  Semyon is also the dangerous boss of the Russian mafia and this could jeopardize the safety of Anna and her family?

     Of course, there is a LOT of violence in this film, both graphic and implied.  Children and teens are not the intended viewing audience.  Women are abused, men are murdered, babies kidnapped, sons betrayed, forced sexual acts with little or no emotion.  Smoking, drinking, strong language and nudity.  There is a complex story line and this is an intriguing film.  Even if you know all this information before viewing, you can still be stunned and appalled!!  5* (I really liked this movie)

100 min, Action directed by David Cronenberg and written by Steven Knight with Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Josef Altin, Mina E. Mina, Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse, Lalita Ahmed, Badi Uzaman Dona Croll, Raza Jaffrey, Sinead Cusack, Vincent Cassel.

Note:  Imdb 7.6* out of 10* with 225,585 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 89% with 200 critics 83% with 149,254 audience scores, Metacritic 82 out of 100 with 35 critic reviews, 7.0 out of 10 with 308 user scores, Common Sense Media S. Jhoanna Robledo, 3* out of 5*, age 18+, 5* violence, 5* sex, 5* language, 3* consumerism, 3* drinking, drugs & smoking.

Special Note:  After shooting, Viggo Mortensen went to a pub without removing his tattoos or changing his clothing.  Some of the patrons became very frightened of him because they assumed he was a real member of Vory v Zakone.  The tattoos on his ankles are Where are you going? and What to you Care in Russian?  Viggo thought it was very funny that one foot doesn’t respect the other!!  Armin Mueller-Stahl plays the violin for two little girls.  This was not dubbed and in real life Armin was a noted concert violinist in his youth!!  The characters who were members of the Vory v Zakone did not use a gun during filming.  The members of this group typically prefer to use knives instead of guns.  If questioned, the members could claim the knives were for linoleum cutting?

Mistake:  Anna leaves the Trans-Siberian for the second time.  Semyon kisses her goodbye once on each cheek.  Russians kiss three times, both cheeks, again on the first cheek for the last kiss.  Uncle Stepan spits in Nikolai’s face.  He says the Russian word mrakabes, this means obscurantist and doesn’t belong here?  It means the practice of deliberately presenting information in an imprecise, abstruse manner designed to limit further inquiry and understanding.