Innella, Eastern Promises

David Cronenburg's Eastern Promises tells a sad story about a young girl who was taken as a sex slave by the russian mafia and was impregnated. She is forced to consume heroine and then dies; however, her baby survives. When a midwife named Anna helps birth the baby, she becomes connected to the baby. She took the girl's journal when she was brought into the hospital and brings it to a russian restaurant to have the owner translate it. She does not know that the owner of the hospital is the mafia boss and soon becomes involved with another man who is an undercover agent and has become part of the mafia.

The film has many realistic aspects and there are a few scenes that really exemplify this. One of the scenes is near the beginning of the film where the pregnant girl, Tatiana goes into a pharmacy asking for help. She is in what looks to be a nightgown and she is dirty and wet from being outside in the rain. She looks very sick and she is bleeding from under her gown. She then faints and ends up dying. This scene shows the realistic aspect of the film by showcasing the horrifying realities of the mafia.

Another scene that shows the realistic aspect of the mafia is the scene in which Kiril, the "prince" of the mafia forces the undercover agent, Nikolai, to have sex with one of the girls that the mafia has taken to use as their sex slaves. He does this because he says Nikolai has to prove that he is not homosexual. Kiril refers to the girls as his father's "stable" and then watches as Nikolai picks a girl and has sex with her. After Nikolai has sex with her, he makes Kiril leave the room and he gives the girl money to run away from the mafia. This scene shows the total disregard to human life that the mafia has and their barbaric ways.

A similar portrayal of disregard occurs when the mafia boss discovers that Anna's uncle has read Tatiana's journal. When he finds this out, he sends Nikolai to go kill him because he "knows too much". The viewer does not know what happens to Anna's uncle until Anna confronts Nikolai and he tells her that he paid for him to have a first class flight to Scotland where he is staying in a hotel for his safety. Despite the fact that Nikolai saved Anna's uncle, the demand of the boss shows the reality that the mafia will stop at nothing to continue their operations.

Eastern Promises is a frightening portrayal of the way of life of the mafia and the actions that they take in order to stay alive.