Task 2: How have you represented social groups?

In our thriller we present two major social groups, one that is gender and the other one that is ethnicity.

Gender:

            The biggest social group of the two is gender, that is because our thriller is based of subverting ideas of gender. In the opening scene we see the two characters packing up the car for in order for them to escape. The main character in the story is the portrayed Russian spy who is on the run; along with her she has an accomplice/love interest that gets tangled in-between her and the trouble she is currently facing. This certain individual plays a big part in the gender social group, by his actions and body language we are able to conform and subvert ideas on gender. 

            As they are packing the car up for their runaway we see that the love interest is asking the Russian spy for help to carry a crate to the car, this subverts the idea of gender because usually men are more isolated and would not ask for any assistance. Unlike in our thriller since the girl is the main character in the story we are able to tell that she is the one who is able to take care of this situation and the situations that are about to come.

           

Ethnicity:

            For ethnicity, Russians are usually shown as more of a self-standing community and are able to care of a situation, but they are also viewed as criminals, mostly by the Americans. An example of this has been where a Russian spy called Anna Chapman had infiltrated America and had been close in seducing a sitting member of Barack Obama’s cabinet. This conforms and strengthens the idea of a Russian being like criminals. Here is the full story:

Frank Figliuzzi, the FBI's assistant director of counterintelligence, said Miss Chapman's handlers at Russia's SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) had intended her to be a "honeytrap" and she had got "closer and closer to higher and higher ranking leadership".

He added: "She got close enough to disturb us." Chapman, now 30, was one of ten "illegals" – Russian sleeper agents – who were ejected from the US in July 2010 after their attempts at spying were monitored for several years by the FBI.

The group was previously thought to have been mostly harmless. FBI surveillance suggested the spies were tasked with penetrating US policy-making circles but garnered no sensitive information.

However, Mr Figliuzzi said the fear of Miss Chapman ensnaring a particular cabinet member was one of the prime reasons that FBI agents swooped on the Russian spy ring.

"We were becoming very concerned," he told the BBC's Modern Spies programme. "They were getting close enough to a sitting US cabinet member that we thought we could no longer allow this to continue."

Mr Figliuzzi refused to name the individual concerned but made clear that Miss Chapman caused particular alarm. "I think part of her value was indeed her ability to be engaging, charismatic and I think to that extent she might have been viewed by them [the SVR] as a potential honey trap," he said. "She was getting closer and closer to higher and higher ranking leadership."

Mr Figliuzzi said the cabinet member was warned of the threat.

Miss Chapman has become a minor celebrity since returning to Russia, posing for men's magazines, launching her own television show about the paranormal and modelling at catwalk fashion shows.

She and the other illegals were awarded with state medals and they got together with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to sing a sentimental Soviet song about a Russian spy.

Miss Chapman also became an adviser to Molodaya Gvardiya (Young Guard), the youth wing of Putin's United Russia party.

Before moving to the United States, Miss Chapman, whose maiden name was Kushchenko, married an Englishman and spent four years until 2008 living in Britain.

In summer 2010, it was reported that during her time in the UK Miss Chapman frequented nightclubs visited by Princes William and Harry such as Boujis, Movida and Tramp. M15 were said to be checking whether the Russian spy had targeted the royals.

In thrillers Russians are usually also portrayed as criminals, spies, or terrorists; and in our thriller we have our Russian spy Anna who is located by her boss and is to be killed by one of his thugs. In that moment the love interest gets killed while Anna springs into action in the goal of killing him before he gets to her first. This then conforms the idea of Russians being able to take care of the situation and to be self-standing.