The current rumor is that production of the sequel to Eastern Promises is scheduled to begin sometime just before Easter of this year. While details are hard to come by at this point, there seems to be solid evidence the rumor will become reality. This is great news for fans of the movie as it left many of us wondering what ever became of Anna and the baby, who now has become a young teenager.
Why people should be interested in an Eastern Promises sequel is simple. It combines several of the current political and issue themes that are in front of us every day. Though the action takes place in London, child sex trafficking, the Russian Mafia, and Russian involvement in our everyday lives are three of the main themes we can expect to pick up on from the original movie. A brief review is in order here.
A London teen is caught up into drug addiction and prostitution by the Russian Mafia. She becomes pregnant, and the woman who delivers her baby, Anna, is a midwife who discovers the past of the teen who dies shortly after giving birth. The problem for Anna is that since the mafia has learned she knows about the ongoing sex trafficking in London, they threaten the life of the baby to keep her quiet. That sets off a chain of events that drives Anna deeper into the criminal organization, with threats coming from the Mafia leader’s son and a somewhat compassionate warning from the son’s strong arm associate.
The end of Eastern Promises leaves us with the subplot of a potential violent overthrow of the Russian Mafia’s power structure, changing the entire approach to what will eventually be done with Anna and the baby. What is revealed at the end of the movie is that there is an undercover agent working for the Russian government who has infiltrated the mafia and is in a position to significantly alter the power structure.
With any change to the mafia’s organization comes the possibility that Anna may be either freed or outright murdered. The lynchpin to her and the baby’s fate is likely to rest on what the undercover agent can do with the influence he has acquired. He is not likely to be someone who will actually take power, but is in a good position to influence the final outcome of who will become the next crime-lord.
While the possibilities are intriguing, the question is whether the rumors and apparent filming in London are actually true. The production is supposed to begin, but as for how long it will be before we see the final result is only a guessing game at this point. More than a decade has passed since the original movie came out, and actors such as Viggo Mortensen have aged since then. This may or may not be a problem, depending on how the sequel is cast and the storyline continued. There are always surprises when so much times passes, but if we are going to see an Eastern Promises 2 it likely will be under a different name and have a few new twists to make up for lost time.
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