Taglines: Spy on us, we’ll spy on you.
The East is an English-language thriller film directed by Zal Batmanglij and starring Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, and Ellen Page. Writers Batmanglij and Marling spent two months in 2009 practicing freeganism and co-wrote a screenplay inspired by their experiences and drawing on thrillers from the 1970s.
The American studio Fox Searchlight Pictures had bought rights to distribute Batmanglij’s previous film Sound of My Voice and also collaborated with the director to produce The East. With Ridley Scott as producer and Tony Scott as executive producer, Fox Searchlight contracted Scott Free Productions, headquartered in London, to produce the film. The East was filmed in two months in Shreveport, Louisiana at the end of 2011. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2013. It was released in theaters on May 31, 2013.
About the Story (2013)
Sarah Moss (Brit Marling) is a former FBI agent who now works as an operative for the private intelligence firm Hiller Brood, headed by Sharon (Patricia Clarkson). Under the pretext of going to Dubai, Sarah is dropped off at Dulles Airport by her boyfriend, Tim (Jason Ritter). Instead of going through security Sarah descends to Arrivals where she takes a cab to a motel. At the motel she begins the process of going undercover to become a traveler.
Disguised, she hits the road in search of The East (an underground activist group) with the mission to locate their headquarters and feed information about the group to Hiller Brood in order for Sharon to protect her corporate clients. While riding the rails Sarah encounters a posse of rag-tag drifters, who are roughly dispersed by railroad police.
In the process, she winds up in Luca’s (Shiloh Fernandez) van and deduces that he must be a member of The East from a compass on his rear-view mirror that points only east. While Luca searches nearby dumpsters for food, Sarah cuts her own arm with a discarded Coke can. When Luca returns to the van he notices blood on Sarah’s sleeve and wants to see her arm. Sarah reveals the gash claiming she got it from jumping the fence earlier. Luca insists on taking Sarah to see a doctor. He blindfolds her and drives her to an abandoned house in the woods where The East is squatting and Doc (Toby Kebbell) seals Sarah’s cut with Super Glue.
Sarah is given two nights to recover before she is to leave the squat but when a member of the group goes missing Sarah is recruited to fill the missing member’s role on a “jam” (criminal ecological activism). After seeing the effectiveness of the pharmaceutical jam compounded by her growing attraction to the charismatic Benji (Alexander Skarsgård) Sarah gradually questions the moral underpinnings of her undercover duty. Sarah reluctantly participates in The East’s next jam and comes to learn that each of The East has been personally damaged by corporate activities.
One East member, Izzy (Ellen Page), is the daughter of a petrochemical CEO. The group therefore uses the father/daughter connection to gain access to the CEO and forces him to bathe in the waterway he has been using as a toxic dumping ground. This jam goes wrong when security guards arrive and shoot Izzy in the back as she and The East try and escape.
Back at the squat, the Doc’s hands tremble too much (a direct result of being poisoned by the McCabe Grey antibiotic years earlier) and therefore he cannot perform surgery on Izzy. Sarah offers to do it for him if he tells her what to do. She bravely removes the bullet from Izzy’s abdomen, yet nonetheless Izzy dies and is buried near The East’s house (which we have previously learned is Benji’s deserted, burned-out family home).
Even though Sarah and Benji have fallen in love (and Sarah’s boyfriend Tim has left her) and Sarah implores him to runaway with her he insists that they go together to complete the final jam. Sarah refuses at first but finally gives-in and the two head by car for the last jam. When Sarah awakens, after a night of sleeping in the passenger seat, she realizes that Benji is driving her to the Hiller Brood headquarters outside Washington, D.C. He reveals that he has always suspected her of being an agent and that Luca brought her in on purpose because he too suspected her of being a Hiller Brood operative.
Benji wants Sarah to obtain a NOC list of Hiller Brood agents all over the world. This is The East’s third and final jam. Sarah confronts Sharon about the firm’s activities, thus revealing her new allegiances and Sharon has Sarah’s cell phone confiscated as she leaves the building. Sarah tells Benji she’s failed to get the agent data and he leaves her at truck stop as he heads out of the country on a semi-truck. In truth, Sarah still has the data and the film ends with an epilogue of her personally contacting her former coworkers and attempting to change their minds about their undercover activities and instead join her in ecological activism.
The East (2013)
Directed by: Zal Batmanglij
Starring: Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, Ellen Page, Toby Kebbell, Shiloh Fernandez, Danielle Macdonald, Hillary Baack, Patricia Clarkson, Sedef Seren
Screenplay by: Zal Batmanglij, Brit Marling
Production Design by: Alex DiGerlando
Cinematography by: Roman Vasyanov
Film Editing by: Bill Pankow, Andrew Weisblum
Costume Design by: Jenny Gering
Set Decoration by: Cynthia Anne Slagter
Music by: Halli Cauthery, Harry Gregson-Williams
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, violence, some disturbing images, sexual content and partial nudity.
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release Date: May 31, 2013
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