The latest trailer for the upcoming indie thriller, The East has been posted online. The film is a collaboration between director Zal Batmanglij and star Brit Marling.
Marling stars as Sarah Moss is a former FBI agent and an operative for the private intelligence firm Hiller Brood. She infiltrates an anarchist collective called The East and convinces its members of her genuine participation. Moss begins to fall in love with its leader Benji, and she begins to question the moral underpinnings of her undercover duty.
Batmanglij co-wrote the screenplay with Marling after they were inspired by the concept of Buy Nothing Day, an international day of protest against consumerism, and decided to experience a Buy Nothing summer. The two spent two months in 2009 with proponents of freeganism, which is a practice of “[eating] discarded food in their pursuit of a moneyless existence.”
“We wanted to have some adventure, and we didn’t have any money. We learned to hop trains, we learned to sleep on rooftops, we learned to claim the space that feels so private,” said Marling. “We joined this anarchist collective.”
The pair drew from their experiences as well as thriller films like The Bourne Identity and Michael Clayton to craft the story.
The film also stars Alexander Skarsgård and Ellen Page.
The East opens nationwide on May 31.
Check out the trailer below: