Passes the Bechdel test
Eastern Promises
2007. Directed by David Cronenberg, written by Steven Knight.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
12 women characters. 4 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 2 scenes out of 105. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
THIS SUMMARY CONTAINS SPOILERS. In London, pregnant Russian teenager Tatiana arrives bleeding to a hospital, and the doctors save her baby only. Russian-descendant midwife Anna Khitrova finds Tatiana's diary written in Russian language in her belongings and, deciding to find her family and bring them the baby, she brings the diary home and asks her uncle Stepan to translate the document. Stepan refuses, but Anna finds a card of a restaurant owned by the Russian Semyon inside the diary and visits the old man trying to find a lead to contact Tatiana's family. When she mentions the existence of the diary, Semyon immediately offers to translate the document. However, Stepan translates part of the diary and Anna discovers that Semyon and his sick son Kirill had raped Tatiana when she was 14 and forced her to work as a prostitute in their brothel. Further, Semyon is the dangerous boss of the Russian mafia "Vory v Zakone", jeopardizing the safety of Anna and her family. Meanwhile, Semyon's driver Nikolai Luzhin gets close to Kirill and Semyon, climbing positions in the criminal organization, but he helps Anna, her family, and the baby.
- Released
- 21 Sep 2007
- Genres
- Crime, Drama, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.6 / 10
- Metascore
- 83 / 100
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 28 wins & 74 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Nikolai 168 lines, man
- Anna 149 lines, woman
- Semyon 117 lines, man
- Kirill 94 lines, man
- Helen 62 lines, woman
- Stepan 29 lines, man
- Ozim 26 lines, man
- Yuri 26 lines, man
- Tatiana 15 lines, woman
- Aziz 11 lines, man
Full cast, 36 people
- Viggo Mortensen as Nikolai Luzhin
- Naomi Watts as Anna Ivanovna Khitrova
- Vincent Cassel as Kirill
- Armin Mueller-Stahl as Semyon
- Sinéad Cusack as Helen
- Donald Sumpter as Yuri
- Jerzy Skolimowski as Stepan
- Josef Altin as Ekrem
- Aleksandar Mikic as Soyka
- Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse as Tatiana
- Lalita Ahmed as Customer
- Tatiana Maslany as Tatiana (voice)
- Tereza Srbova as Kirilenko
- David Papava as Chechen
- Tamer Hassan as Chechen
- Raza Jaffrey as Doctor Aziz
- Elisa Lasowski as Prostitute
- Alice Henley as Prostitute
- Badi Uzzaman as Chemist
- Doña Croll as Nurse
- Mia Soteriou as Azim's Wife
- Radosław Kaim as Head Waiter
- Rhodri Miles as Senior Officer
- Cristina Catalina as Prostitute
- Michael Sarne as Valery
- Boris Isarov as Russian Boss
- Andrzej Borkowski as The Gypsy
- Olegar Fedoro as Tattooist
- Tony Cook as Football Hooligan (uncredited)
- Shannon-Fleur Roux as Maria
- Mina E. Mina as Azim
- Lillibet Langley as Violin Girl
- Faton Gerbeshi as Pimp
- Gergo Danka as Junior Waiter
- Yuri Klimov as Russian Boss
- Diane Beck as Nurse (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 3% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 105
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | 0 | 15 |
| 4 to 6 | 2 | 1 |
| 7 to 9 | 9 | 11 |
| 10 to 12 | 17 | 5 |
| 13 to 15 | 7 | 12 |
| 16 to 18 | 1 | 6 |
| 19 to 21 | 12 | 22 |
| 22 to 24 | 22 | 5 |
| 25 to 27 | 0 | 11 |
| 28 to 30 | 0 | 12 |
| 31 to 33 | 3 | 2 |
| 34 to 36 | 7 | 15 |
| 37 to 39 | 15 | 32 |
| 40 to 42 | 0 | 3 |
| 43 to 45 | 18 | 2 |
| 46 to 48 | 3 | 29 |
| 49 to 51 | 35 | 30 |
| 52 to 54 | 9 | 47 |
| 55 to 57 | 7 | 43 |
| 58 to 60 | 0 | 1 |
| 61 to 63 | 1 | 15 |
| 64 to 66 | 17 | 12 |
| 67 to 69 | 0 | 29 |
| 70 to 72 | 0 | 16 |
| 73 to 75 | 7 | 2 |
| 76 to 78 | 0 | 7 |
| 79 to 81 | 7 | 3 |
| 82 to 84 | 13 | 10 |
| 85 to 87 | 9 | 40 |
| 88 to 90 | 0 | 35 |
| 91 to 93 | 0 | 0 |
| 94 to 96 | 2 | 0 |
| 97 to 99 | 5 | 4 |
| 100 to 102 | 1 | 1 |
| 103 to 105 | 6 | 15 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
ANNA: I know it's my fault... HELEN: It's no one's fault...
ANNA: You never worked for the fucking KGB! HELEN: Anna!
ANNA: That's their driver. HELEN: Tell me you haven't done anything ridiculous...
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 32 are women's.
235 lines from women, 493 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
12 women and 21 men in the cast. 4 women and 13 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 16 of 747.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 49 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 28% of the words (1,914), men 72% (4,843). Women have 32% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
19
Two men
28
Exhibit F: behind the camera
4 of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 32% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- David Cronenberg (man)
- Written by
- Steven Knight (man)
- Produced by
- Paul Webster (man), Robert Lantos (man)
- Shot by
- Peter Suschitzky (man)
- Edited by
- Ronald Sanders (man)
- Music by
- Howard Shore (man)
- Production design by
- Carol Spier (woman)
- Costumes by
- Denise Cronenberg (woman)
- Cast by
- Deirdre Bowen (woman), Nina Gold (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
1 women, 8 men, 3 not listed
-
Production
4 women, 5 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 2 men, 3 not listed
-
Other crew
2 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
2 women, 0 men, 2 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Directing
1 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 38 on average. Men: 54 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse 16, Naomi Watts 38, Sinéad Cusack 59
Men
Josef Altin 24, Vincent Cassel 40, Viggo Mortensen 48, Donald Sumpter 64, Jerzy Skolimowski 69, Armin Mueller-Stahl 76
Exhibit H: the money
It made 1.1 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $51.5 million
- Box office
- $56.1 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 105 scenes and 747 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
