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Eastern Promises is a 2007 drama and thriller feature film directed by David Cronenberg. The screenplay is by Steve Knight, whose previous credits include Stephen Frears' Dirty Pretty Things. Release is scheduled for September 14, 2007.

The new thriller reteaming acclaimed director David Cronenberg with his A History of Violence leading man Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises is written by Steve Knight (Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of Dirty Pretty Things). As in the earlier film, director and star together explore the psyche, physicality, and fortunes of a man whose true nature may never be wholly revealed. The mysterious and charismatic Russian-born Nikolai Luzhin (Mr. 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.

Shooting began in November 2006, and various scenes were filmed in St John's Street, Farringdon, London. Filming also took place in Broadway Market, Hackney. The entrance to the "Ankara Social Club" of the film is actually the front door of a residential flat. The Broadway Market hair dresser known as "Broadway Gents Hairstylist" was changed to "Azims Hair Salon", where in the film one of the Russians is murdered. The owner decided to keep the majority of the shopfront after filming. In the original script, the name was "Ozims Hair Salon", but it was later changed to "Azims" as there is no such name as Ozim in Turkish.

• Eastern Promises at IMDb