Bates, Eastern Promises

The film Eastern Promises, set in London, provides an insight into the drama that unfolds when an undercover FSB agent named Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) and a midwife named Anna (Naomi Watts) become involved with the Russian mob. Nikolai, posing as a driver, fully immerses himself in the mob family and ultimately takes them down through the boss’s son Kirill (Vincent Cassel), who takes Nikolai as a gay lover. Anna becomes entangled with the mob after she delivers a baby from one of their sex slaves, a fourteen-year-old girl who dies during the birth. Anna goes looking for the girl’s family, hoping to save the baby from a life of foster care, but finds herself uncomfortably close to the mob. The movie is filmed in the realistic style, which leaves it open to a critique from the realistic perspective. While Eastern Promises does not uphold all aspects of realism, it does adhere to many of the ideological and stylistic notions such as unstructured plots, emphasis on emotion, and presentation of morals issues without passing judgment.

The scene in which Kirill and Nikolai pick up the Chechen mobster’s body exemplifies the movie’s unstructured plot. The audience is unsure of Kirill’s relationship with the victim, as Kirill merely says, “he was like a brother to me, but now he looks like a fucking ice cream.” The audience is left to wonder what sparked their schism and is never provided with an explanation. This illustrates that the movie is merely an excerpt from the characters’ lives, governed by their whims rather than a plotline with an agenda. If plot had been more integral to the film’s style, then the cause of the hit would have been revealed at some point in the movie.
Emotional emphasis is acutely shown at the end of the film. When Kirill’s father orders him to kill the slave’s baby to prevent the police from linking them to rape, Kirill is overcome with guilt at the prospect. Nikolai then arrives with Anna, and he talks Kirill down by saying, “We don’t kill babies. This would be bad for us . . . You’re either with him [Kirill’s father] or with me.” The two embrace like lovers, and the tension is released through Kirill’s tears. Kirill cannot say no to Nikolai and allows himself to be fooled by Nikolai’s false love. Thus, the final source of conflict is resolved through an appeal to emotion.

Finally, while the movie addresses many moral issues, it leaves judgment up to the audience. At one point, Kirill forces Nikolai to rape one of the sex slaves, threatening violence if he does not. Despite his loathing, Nikolai complies and afterwards speaks softly to the girl he raped, asking her where she is from and urging her to “stay alive a little longer.” Rape is a horrible act, yet Nikolai knows that if he refuses, his mission will be compromised and he will never free the girls from their plight. While the movie presents this moral dilemma, it never passes judgment, instead simply showing the rape and Nikolai’s subsequent compassion. It uses no filters, lighting, or music to suggestion a tone of disapproval and rather allows the audience to decide the act’s morality. Thus, the film upholds the realistic notion of presenting its subject matter from a neutral standpoint.