Filmmakers Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, who met as students at Georgetown University, settled in Los Angeles and created the Sundance Film Festival sensation Sound Of My Voice, wanted to build their next project around alternative lifestyles. With The East, noteworthy director-writer Batmanglij and producer-writer Marling, allow us to journey into the startling world of an elusive anarchist collective seeking revenge against major corporations guilty of covering up criminal activity.
Marling is equally brilliant as Sarah, a role that was conceived and written with her in mind; a woman who works for an elite private intelligence firm that ruthlessly protects the interests of its A-list corporate clientele. Hand-picked for a plum assignment by the company's head honcho, Sarah goes deep undercover to infiltrate The East. Determined, highly trained and resourceful, Sarah soon ingratiates herself with the group, overcoming their initial suspicions and joining them on their next action or "jam". But living closely with the intensely committed members of The East, Sarah finds herself torn between her two worlds as she starts to connect with anarchist Benji (Alexander Skarsgård) and the rest of the collective, and awakens to the moral contradictions of her personal life.
It is terrific how The East allows us to experience both worlds through its rich-and-vivid characters, offering a unique opportunity of subjectively experiencing the emotional torment of both its victims and anarchists, and the moral issues the film deals with, as well as objectively looking at both sides of the same coin. It brilliantly questions the fine line between right and wrong, and walks a tightrope between action and consequence. Tackling both the aspects of cultish revolutionaries and the actions of greedy corporate criminals, The East is a tense-and-emotional experience.
Masterfully scripted, The East is a visually arresting exploration of humanity and the world we live in, profoundly and prophetically taking an intimate look at those who destroy our planet, as well as unsung heroes who will risk everything to save it. The documentary feel of the film gives it a stark and gritty realism; the cold-and-calculated concrete jungle is beautifully contrasted by the rich colours and spectacle of the communal country living.
The East vividly bursts to life through its richly textured characters, brilliantly brought to life through strong performances. Marling is sensational in balancing the duality of a career-obsessed woman who represents the status quo and whose point of view begins to change as she becomes more and more emotionally invested in her targets. In particular, her growing relationship with Benji, the group's unofficial leader, begins to cloud her judgment.
Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård (better known for his role in True Blood and, most recently, Disconnected) is superb as a child of privilege who has grown into a man of inflexible principles, an alluring militant and leader of an anarchist collective who is willing to go a little farther to achieve his goals. The electrifying chemistry between Marling and Skarsgård is palpable - the characters must maintain their respective strategic advantages while keeping their volatile attraction under control.
Ellen Page is brilliant as a fervent true believer of the group, whose passion for justice and her anger at the unfairness she sees all around are a driving force for The East. Equally superb are Toby Kebbell as a former med-school student who left the "normal" world; Shiloh Fernandez (also in Evil Dead) is great as Luca, the street kid who brings Sarah into the group. Patricia Clarkson delivers a powerful performance as the formidable and charismatic CEO of Hiller Brood, a powerhouse with a lot of people answering to her.
If you are looking for intelligent viewing that will challenge your perceptions and provoke your imagination, The East provides first-rate entertainment. It is imaginative and prophetic filmmakers like Marling and Batmanglij who impressively emphasise the importance of film as an art form, making it a culturally and socially relevant endeavour that enriches lives, fosters the differences that separate, and makes the world a better place to live in. During an age of conservation awareness, it boldly challenges our moral convictions, human integrity and what we will sacrifice to secure our survival, and profoundly assaults our senses and sensibility without ever becoming didactic.
Just like the character in the film, Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij gate-crashed a freegan movement - people desiring to live simpler, more community-based lives - and wanted to know what that was like at first hand. They hit the road with backpacks and bedrolls and hopped trains, crashed in tent cities and abandoned buildings with groups of other young nomads, and became acquainted with a growing subculture that had rejected conventionality. "We discovered anarchist and freegan collectives all over the country and lived with some of them for a while," Marling said. "We got to know people who had interesting ideas about how you might live your life - learn to grow your own food, to fix your own car, to defend yourself, to live in small communities, share things with each other, teach each other how to become radically autonomous beings again. We weren't thinking at the time that a movie would come out of the experience. We were just living our lives and the story gradually began to take shape."
When they returned to their lives in Los Angeles, gradually decompressing from weeks lived on the road, they began to fashion their experiences into the screenplay that would become The East. And as they wrote, they noticed the real world was beginning to reflect the ideas they were weaving into their story.
"When the Gulf oil spill happened, we had already incorporated an oil spill into our story. Then the economy tanked and the country went into a recession. The ill will toward corporations and the financial industry was growing. The Arab Spring phenomenon began. People started to say the script was so timely. Then, as we started pre-production, the Occupy movement erupted." Batmanglij and Marling had put their fingers on a growing wave of cultural discontent. "The East came into being through our personal frustration with rampant consumerism and all the contradictions of living in modern civilisation," said Batmanglij."
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