Eastern Promises

Eastern Promises (2007) is about the Russian mafia in London, and at its centre is a system of tattoos. A midwife finds the diary of a young girl who has died. It is in Russian and contains a restaurant's card. Looking for a translation she becomes entangled with a family: a restaurant on the outside, a criminal organisation within. What interests Cronenberg is hierarchy. In this organisation who you are is written on the body; every prison tattoo is a record. Stars are rank, a ring finger tells a story. Carrying the wrong tattoo is punished severely. Viggo Mortensen went to Russia for the part and studied that language of marks; in the initiation scene everything on his body means something. The best known scene is in a bathhouse. Mortensen is entirely naked and fighting two men with knives. It was rehearsed for weeks and no double was used. The nakedness is not a display but a way to establish the odds: the man has nothing protecting him. Mortensen was nominated for best actor. In the final section the character's real position emerges and the film reassembles itself. Naomi Watts and Armin Mueller-Stahl are also in it. It runs 100 minutes. Good for: crime drama, Cronenberg, and character tension. Less good for: the violence is very graphic and the opening scene is hard.