Rating: Sizzling Popcorn
Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen) is the driver for one of London’s most notorious mob families that is a part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood. Trouble comes his way when he meets Anna Khitrova (Oscar nominee Naomi Watts), a midwife at a hospital in northern London, as she begins to ask questions about a young girl who died while giving birth. Anna’s quest to find out the baby’s lineage let’s loose the fury of the Vory brotherhood, putting Nikolai’s life in danger.
Eastern Promises is a movie about the Russian MAFIA in London and the problems of prostitution in the area. Prostitution is very popular in London’s criminal underground, with most of the girls coming from Russia. The reason why prostitution and body trafficking is more popular than drug trafficking is because, if caught trafficking 10,000 people into England, you only get 6 months of prison while you get 40 years if you traffic heroine.
Eastern Promises is quite impressive with the amount of research the crew did when producing this film. I really like how tattoos become a major part of the movie as they are very important in the Russian MAFIA. Tattoos tell the life story of members in the criminal world. If you’re seen in a Russian prison without any tattoos, it means that you have no life because they tell your criminal history. There is a whole language expressed through tattoos. Your rank and history in the criminal brotherhood is represented on your body. If there’s a tattoo you cannot explain, then you’re in trouble! In order to join a family, you must follow the unwritten rules:
- Need a professional criminal record.
- Need to have served a few prison terms.
- Do not steal from another thief.
- Do not lie to another thief.
- Do not misrepresent yourself to another thief.
When members of the Russian mob have business meetings or are welcoming a new member into their family, they have their meetings in steam rooms in order to see everybody’s tattoos.
Something I found interesting about Eastern Promises is that during filming, a former KGB (Russian secret police) officer, Alexander Litvenenko, was murdered in London.
As I have written in a previous post, Eastern Promises, with the help of Away From Her, swept away the Genie Awards at the beginning of March. Also, Viggo Mortensen, who plays the role of Nikolai Luzhin, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Eastern Promises is not your typical movie as it is very intelligent, informative and very well directed. I highly recommend this movie as, even if you’re not a mob movie lover, you will leave well informed about the issues that concern many in London: prostitution, human trafficking and crime.
Release Date: Sept 14, 2007
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