Woooooh! My 2nd ever attendance at a film festival was marked on Sunday the 11th of August, 2013. This time with my Father.

We went to see ‘The East’, which is Zal Batmanglij’s masterful take on guerrilla-corporate espionage. I truly enjoyed this film. It was very different to ‘Manuscripts Don’t Burn’ and was set at a much higher pace – something I usually require to enjoy films. The fact that the cinema didn’t smell as weird as The Forum also made a difference.

Set in the present-day States, ‘The East’ follows the work of Sarah; an undercover operative for an elite private intelligence firm as she is tasked with infiltrating an guerrilla- anarchist group who undertake revenge-driven sabotage missions on major corporations. The group, fittingly called ‘The East’, is full of cast-out type individuals who avenge their own personal vendettas through the operations of the clandestine organisation.

The film’s tagline ‘Spy on us, we’ll spy on you’ (IMDB: The East) truly sums up the feel of the story as the audience wonders who knows what at which point in the storyline until the final, exciting climax where all is revealed.

An excellent film with sensational casting guaranteed to provoke thought. Might even make you wonder how much we should trust the big players in the business world right now. 4/5 stars.

Thank you Melbourne International Film Festival for another pleasant night, see you next year.

Last night marked my very first film festival. On Saturday the 10th of August, 2013, I drove in to the city with Mum and made it to the 6.30pm screening of Mohammad Rasoulof’s ‘Manuscripts Don’t Burn’.

Before the film, we got some chow at a nice little Japanese place on Flinders Lane, where I unfortunately ended up wearing a cup full of my ginger-miso soup due to my clumsiness. Regardless, we enjoyed dinner and made our way down towards The Forum theatre, where I had previously witnessed Tame Impala in all their psychedelic greatness.

The queue to get into the cinema ran along the Forum’s length on Flinders, around the corner and halfway up the intersecting street – a good sign for a film’s hype, I’m guessing. Despite the length of this line, it moved very quickly and Mum and I found our way into some seats within about 10 minutes.

The cinema was absolutely packed to the brim and some late-arriving groups we’re even having to sit apart – the disadvantage of being ‘fashionably late’. After a few short commercials for local bars/Maltesers/Foxtel and Maltesers, the film begun and the audience grew silent.

The film (fully spoken in Farsi with English subtitles) struck me as very well written, directed and shot. I was quite literally blown away by the cinematography – the scenery was spectacular. Definitely recommended for anyone with an interest in the Iranian censorship situation, or anyone who loves a good ‘fighting for freedom’ film.

3.5/5 Stars

Below is the synopsis from the MIFF website:
     “Kasra is an Iranian author who manages to secretly write down his memoirs, although being under strict monitoring by the security service. His stories are related to his time in jail as a political prisoner, as well as different events connected to his life as an intellectual in Iran. He has prepared everything in order to publish these writings and is getting ready to leave the country. Several people in the security service apparatus manage to uncover Kasra’s plans. They will do anything to destroy his manuscripts.”

I’m now looking very much forward to going to see ‘The East’ tonight at the Greater Union Cinema – review to follow.