Eastern Promises
Release Date: September 14th, 2007
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Sinead Cusack
Genre: Art/Foreign, Drama, Thriller and Crime/Gangster
MPAA Rating: R
Review: N/A
Plot Summary: The mysterious and charismatic Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin
(Viggo Mortensen) 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
(Academy Award nominee Armin Mueller-Stahl), whose courtly charm as the welcoming proprietor of the plush
Trans-Siberian restaurant impeccably masks a cold and brutal core, the family's fortunes are tested by
Semyon's volatile son and enforcer, Kirill (Vincent Cassel), who is more tightly bound to Nikolai than to
his own father. But Nikolai's carefully maintained existence is jarred once he crosses paths at Christmastime
with Anna Khitrova (Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts), a midwife at a North London hospital. Anna is deeply
affected by the desperate situation of a young teenager who dies while giving birth to a baby. Anna resolves to
try to trace the baby's lineage and relatives. The girl's personal diary also survives her; it is written in
Russian, and Anna seeks answers in it. Anna's mother Helen (Sinéad Cusack) does not discourage her, but Anna's
irascible Russian-born uncle Stepan (Jerzy Skolimowski) urges caution. He is right to do so; by delving into the
diary, Anna has accidentally unleashed the full fury of the Vory. With Semyon and Kirill closing ranks and Anna
pressing her inquiries, Nikolai unexpectedly 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 harrowing chain of
murder, deceit, and retribution reverberates through the darkest corners of both the family and London itself.
More Trailers:
N/A