The East

Sarah, who works for a private intelligence firm, is assigned to infiltrate an activist group. The group is called the East. Their method is action against companies they judge to be harming the environment; their principle is to make an executive live through his own product. A firm dumping toxic waste, a company concealing a drug's side effects: a separate action is designed for each. The question at the centre is the classic question of infiltration stories: the longer Sarah stays, the more she is persuaded. Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling wrote it together, out of their own experience. In the summer of 2009 the two quit their jobs and went on the road, riding trains for free, staying on organic farms and spending time with anarchist collectives and groups who took their food from bins. The collective in the film is invented, but the way of living comes from there. Brit Marling plays Sarah, Alexander Skarsgård plays Benji, the group's leader, and Elliot Page plays Izzy. Patricia Clarkson is Sarah's employer. A thought-provoking example for anyone who likes ideological thrillers and infiltration stories. For a viewer expecting the film to take a clear side, it criticises both and ends by vindicating nobody.