
THIS SUMMARY CONTAINS SPOILERS. - In London, the Russian pregnant teenager Tatiana arrives bleeding in a hospital, and the doctors save her baby only. The Russian descendant midwife Anna Khitrova finds Tatiana's diary written in Russian language in her belongings and decided to find her family to deliver the baby, she brings the diary home and ask her uncle Stepan to translate the document. Stepan refuses, but Anna finds a card of a restaurant owned by the Russian Semyon insi... (Full plot summary below)
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THIS SUMMARY CONTAINS SPOILERS. - In London, the Russian pregnant teenager Tatiana arrives bleeding in a hospital, and the doctors save her baby only. The Russian descendant midwife Anna Khitrova finds Tatiana's diary written in Russian language in her belongings and decided to find her family to deliver the baby, she brings the diary home and ask her uncle Stepan to translate the document. Stepan refuses, but Anna finds a card of a restaurant owned by the Russian Semyon inside the diary and she visits the old man trying to find a lead to contact Tatiana's family. When she mentions the existence of the diary, Semyon immediately offers to translate the document. However, Stepan translates part of the diary and Anna discovers that Semyon and his sick son Kirill had raped Tatiana when she was fourteen years old and forced her to work as prostitute in a brothel of their own. Further, Semyon is the dangerous boss of the Russian mafia "Vory v Zakone", jeopardizing the safety of Anna and her family. Meanwhile, Semyon's driver Nikolai Luzhin gets close to Kirill and Semyon, climbing positions in the criminal organization, but he helps Anna, her family and the baby.
Leave your thoughts about Eastern Promises.
| eFilmCritic.comPeter SobczynskiThe kind of dark, disturbing and deeply fascinating work that jolts you while you are watching it unfold and continues to insinuate itself into your mind long after the end credits have rolled. |
| Minneapolis Star TribuneColin CovertIt's a mouthful of blood with a vodka chaser. |
| Nolan's Pop Culture ReviewMichael A. SmithWith Oscar season almost upon us, "Eastern Promises" fires the first shot in the race for the golden boy. |
| The Film YapNick RogersDavid Cronenberg's spin on "The Departed," in which lawmen and the lawless were similarly tested within an ethnic mafia's ranks. But where that became an overwrought bloodbath, "Promises" maintained a vicious focus on mob malevolence and personal peril. |
| Senses of CinemaDan SallittDespite the problems with the characterisations, Cronenberg's portentous, withholding camera creates a compelling tension around Watts and Mortensen's love/hate scenes. |
| Cinema ScopeRobert KoehlerEastern Promises is a fascinating case of a film made under the intense gaze of a supreme auteur and written by the separate but equally potent hand of a writer. |
| Aisle SeatMike McGranaghanEastern Promises is not just one of this year's best films, it is also my pick for the best David Cronenberg movie to date. |
| Digital SpyBen Rawson-JonesQuite possibly the best film of the year, it is to be seen at all costs. |
| Montreal Film JournalKevin N. LaforestCronenberg's Christmas flick is intensely thought-provoking and affecting. |
| Arizona RepublicKerry LengelSuffice it to say it's a bit of primal brutality that lays bare the animal in each of us, fighting to survive. |