Plot:

Sarah (Brit Marling) is an agent for a ruthless security firm who is tasked with infiltrating a mysterious, anti-corporate organization called "The East". She manages to integrate herself into The East, despite the opposition of Izzy (Ellen Page), the most outspoken and unpredictable anarchist in the group. Sarah finds herself torn between two worlds when she becomes drawn to the group's charismatic leader, Benji (Alexander Skarsgard), and finds her life and priorities irrevocably changed.

Facts:

• Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling were inspired by their life-changing experience of living “undercover” with a group of anarchists in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2010 and 2011
• They tried to shoot "The East" before "Sound Of My Voice", with a cast including Andrew Garfield and Rooney Mara. But financiers felt those names weren't big enough at the time
• Fox Searchlight was willing to take the project, but only on the condition that they can find a huge star (Ellen) to anchor it
• Felicity Jones was originally set to play Izzy, but press commitments for the film “Like Crazy” forced her to drop out
• The scenes at the lake were shot at the Hamel Memorial Park in the first week of production
• A few scenes take place at a house, which can be seen in the intro of the ”True Blood” TV series
• The East is the second film Alexander Skarsgard has shot in Shreveport, the town where his True Blood character owns a bar

Quotes:

• "Zal just pulls off these incredibly ambitious days every day; I feel like we’re making a movie that needs 60 days in like half the time. But it’s going really, really well, and it’s cool making a movie someone you’ve been working with for years, because you know each other so well at this point that you kind of even don’t have to talk about a lot of stuff. You just know, and it’s nice because there’s a short hand there. So it’s going well." [...] "Because the story is so kind of divisive, it kind of attracts its own tribe, and really repels people who wouldn’t be interested. So everybody is so committed, it actually reminds me of ‘Sound of My Voice’ in the sense that ‘Sound of My Voice’ was made with very little money, and that was kind of a good way for vetting people." [...] "People only get involved if they really love the story. So everyone comes to work every day not because they’re getting a huge paycheck, but because they really believe in the movie – and that makes everyone work harder." [...] "I think it’s been a similar thing on ‘The East’ - it’s the kind of movie that people do because they have to, like they feel somehow compelled, that the story is significant. I feel like I’ve been really lucky in that respect, to work on a story where the actors all come with that homework and preparation to the table. It’s astounding, because when you write something, I think you’re worried, is it ever going to translate to an audience? And when the actors come and they push the text farther than you ever even imagined, and they get it as much as you did, or even moreso, even more deeply, then you sort of step back and go, like, wow, there’s a chance that these ideas could enter an audience of strangers with these actors as the custodians of it. It’s a tremendous thing to watch." (writer, producer and actress Brit Marling on making the movie; Source: blogs.indiewire.com)
   
• "The entire cast, from Alexander Skarsgard to Ellen Page and Patricia Clarkson, have put their everything into the movie and will be "unrecognizable" when compared to the characters they typically play. I think everybody's going to be surprised to see everyone in this. The characters and the world are very extreme. I don't think anyone is recognizable, if that makes sense." [...] "Everyone in the cast has thrown themselves entirely into their roles. Since none of the actors are extremist anarchists, they all had to put a lot of research into making sure their performances were believable and accurate." [...] "I could not possibly express to you how amazing the cast on this movie is. Alex and Ellen and Toby, they work so hard. They have done so much preparation, it's like we all come to work every day and you feel everyone's devotion to the material. It's a hard shoot. It's an ambitious movie. And it's being shot very quickly. Their work on it is astounding. It really is inspiring." (writer, producer and actress Brit Marling on the cast; Source: www.ifc.com)
   
• "Once you're in the company of good actors, there's some feeling of security regardless of what goes wrong — because something always goes wrong. At least you know the performances will be great. And the script was great." (actor Aldis Hodge on working with his castmates; Source: creators.com)
   
• ”We're activists, more so eco-warriors. Whats happened is…I play a doctor, who, when he was an AIDS worker in Africa, he prescribed his sister and himself an anti-malaria drug that we call Denoxin. And Denoxin had a side effect on his sister, a syndrome called prosopagnosia, which is a condition where you forget your own face in the mirror, generally associated with head trauma, or genetic is what they thought. As it turns out, it's actually a side effect of some of these drugs. So my journey is that I'm trying to give the drug company their drug to take, seeing as it's so safe.” (actor Toby Kebbell on his character; Source: www.hollywood.com)
   
• "It's an ensemble and it's perfect. I share my scenes with everyone." [...] "It's like having a very stiff neck. You're staring up at Skarsgård or looking down at Ellen Page, it's very weird." (actor Toby Kebbell on working with his co-stars; Source: www.hollywood.com)
   
• “I'm super-excited about "The East." It's going to be really interesting. I'm super-pumped for that movie. My character is probably one of the most emotionally and physically exhausting roles, in the best way. It was such a dream role for me that just abruptly popped up in my life. It was just so much fun.” (actress Ellen Page on the movie; Source: www.mtv.com)
   
• "It was an amazing experience. An incredible group of people came around that story and I think the story was a real test for the kind of person that would want to do it. Not everybody wants to make a movie about anarchy and so it was self-selecting. The actors who were drawn to it were the right people for the story and we had an incredible time making it. It’s the story of a girl who's a conservative corporate spy who goes undercover to infiltrate this group of anarchists. We had so much fun making it. We’re still in the middle of editing so who knows what kind of film is going to immerge." (writer, producer and actress Brit Marling on shooting the movie; Source: moviesblog.mtv.com)
   
• "It's a completely different world. It's a whole new landscape of anarchists and rebellion. I think The East really came out of the desire of us wanting to rebel, and what does that rebellion look like? And this was before Occupy Wall Street. How do you rebel against the system? Where do you go, how do you live? So we did that research and went on the road to meet people to figure out how that might work." (writer, producer and actress Brit Marling on the comparison between The East and Sound of My Voice; Source: www.vulture.com)
   
• "It's my best shooting experience to date. Making these films is grueling and challenging and amazing. You bring together a really special group of people and become a tribe. I wouldn't change it for anything in the world." (writer, producer and actress Brit Marling on making the movie; Source: www.backstage.com)
   
• "They were actually very similar experiences because we were just slaves to making a movie. I often think about filmmaking as digging something out. Brit and I pick up a shovel and start digging, and you see the shape of something under the earth. In the case of The East, we got great actors like on Sound of My Voice. On that, Patty Clarkson came and picked up the shovel. Ellen Page came and picked up the shovel. Alexander Skarsgard picked up two shovels. We’re shoveling away together, meanwhile, the costume designer comes, the cinematographer comes and the production designer comes. Gosh, everyone’s just digging away. At the end, there’s this thing, this movie that exists. I found this overarching feeling on Sound of My Voice that carried over into The East." (director and writer Zal Batmanglij on making The East and Sound of My Voice; Source: anthemmagazine.com)