Bin snooping
Spy thriller takes us into shady world of ‘freegan’ eco-terrorists
THE EAST
THROUGHOUT this movie, director Zal Batmanglij shows us images from TV and newspapers, shots of dead birds covered in oil as a result of a spill.
He shows us factories spewing smoke and tainted steam; ruined landscapes and dead animals.
It’s not a subtle approach, but this kind of pollution has become so familiar within our cities.
Once these images are in our heads, Batmanglij expands into a film about eco-terrorists, groups of people who blame multinational corporations for the pollution of rivers, seas and forests, without giving a thought to the people and the environment.
The central character is Sarah (Brit Marling), an ex-FBI agent who works for the Hiller Brood Institute, a company that is trying to tackle the pollution in a legal way, but also has to consider the ecoactivists.
The head of the institute, Sharon (Patricia Clarkson) tasks Sarah with infiltrating an anarchist group known as “The East”, whose members have carried out covert attacks on multinational corporations. The group lives off the grid and its members scavenge food thrown away by shops and restaurants to survive.
In order to gather information on the group, Sarah creates a cover identity and sets to work on becoming one of them, people who live way beyond the world of cities, suburbs and shopping malls.
When she meets the group’s leader, Benji (Alexander Skarsgård), he takes her in and, initially, she seems to fit in perfectly. In this community, nobody competes and everything is shared.
Slowly, however, it becomes clear that the charismatic Benji is quietly taking control of the group with a series of rituals, not unlike brainwashing. Things become more complicated as Sarah gets close to some of the group’s members and begins to have romantic feelings for its leader, and her allegiances start shifting.
The film moves slowly but once you get into its rhythm, you will be drawn into this unusual espionage thriller.