Country: USA, UK, Canada
Year: 2007
Duration: 100'
Nikolai Luzhin is the chauffeur of one of the most powerful Russian mob families in London, the Vory V Zakone, headed by Semyon, the patriarch. Nikolai, strict and loyal, sees his life headed towards a crisis when he meets Anna Khitrova, an obstetrician looking for the parents of a young patient who died while giving birth to a baby boy. Searching in the girl’s past, Anna intrudes in the Vory’s business, forcing Nikolai, who has fallen in love with her, to challenge his loyalty towards Semyon and his son Kirill. “The film is a mob crime thriller intricately interwoven with familial dramas, all unfolding in a subculture that dwells within another very strong culture. I felt immediatly sucked into this intense little world of the criminal subculture in London. In a sense, Steve Knight, the screenwriter, has reinvented the crime movie because the script accesses all the great parts of the genre while inverting and subverting them in an interesting way. It’s not a retro movie, instead it’s very modern and intense.”
Biography
film director
David Cronenberg
(Toronto, Canada, 1943) made some short films and television productions before his film debut in 1975 with Shivers. He made a name for himself in the horror genre with Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983) and The Dead Zone (1983), from Stephen King. In 1986 he signed the remake of The Fly, his first big success, and two years later he made Dead Ringers, interpreted by Jeremy Irons, who will also star in M. Butterfly (1993). In 1991 he brought on-screen Burroughs’ life and works with Naked Lunch; in Cannes he was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Crash (1996). With eXistenZ (1999) he won the Silver Bear in Berlin and in 2005 he transposed the graphic novel A History of Violence for film.
FILMOGRAFIA
filmografia essenziale/essential filmography
Shivers (Il demone sotto la pelle, 1975), Rabid (Rabid - Sete di sangue, 1977), Fast Company (Veloci di mestiere, 1979), The Brood (Brood, covata malefica, 1979), Scanners (id., 1981), Videodrome (id., 1983), The Dead Zone (La zona morta, 1983), The Fly (La mosca, 1986), Dead Ringers (Inseparabili, 1988), The Naked Lunch (Il pasto nudo, 1991), M. Butterfly (id., 1993), Crash (id., 1996), eXistenZ (id., 1999), Spider (id., 2002), A History of Violence (id., 2005), Eastern Promises (La promessa dell’assassino, 2007).
Cast
& Credits
regia/director David Cronenberg
sceneggiatura/screenplay Steve Knight
fotografia/director of photography Peter Suschitzky
scenografia/set design Carol Spier
costumi/costume design Denise Cronenberg
montaggio/film editor Ronald Sanders
musica/music Howard Shore
suono/sound Watne Griffin
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters Viggo Mortensen (Nikolai), Naomi Watts (Anna), Vincent Cassel (Kirill), Armin Mueller-Stahl (Semyon), Sinéad Cusack (Helen), Jerzy Skolimowski (Stepan), Tereza Srbova (Kirilenko), Mina E. Mina (Azim), Aleksandar Mikic (Soyka), Sarah Jeanne Labrosse (Tatiana), Raza Jeffrey (Dr Aziz), Shannon-Fleur Roux (Maria)
produttore/producer Robert Lantos, Paul Webster
produzione/production Serendipity Point Films, BBC Films, Focus Features, Kudos Film and Television, Scion Films Limited
coproduttore/coproducer Tracey Seward
distribuzione/distribution Eagle Pictures
sceneggiatura/screenplay Steve Knight
fotografia/director of photography Peter Suschitzky
scenografia/set design Carol Spier
costumi/costume design Denise Cronenberg
montaggio/film editor Ronald Sanders
musica/music Howard Shore
suono/sound Watne Griffin
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters Viggo Mortensen (Nikolai), Naomi Watts (Anna), Vincent Cassel (Kirill), Armin Mueller-Stahl (Semyon), Sinéad Cusack (Helen), Jerzy Skolimowski (Stepan), Tereza Srbova (Kirilenko), Mina E. Mina (Azim), Aleksandar Mikic (Soyka), Sarah Jeanne Labrosse (Tatiana), Raza Jeffrey (Dr Aziz), Shannon-Fleur Roux (Maria)
produttore/producer Robert Lantos, Paul Webster
produzione/production Serendipity Point Films, BBC Films, Focus Features, Kudos Film and Television, Scion Films Limited
coproduttore/coproducer Tracey Seward
distribuzione/distribution Eagle Pictures
