Plot:

The thriller centers a private contracting firm tasked with protecting big corporations from radical environmentalists and anti-business extremists that assigns its best and brightest agent to infiltrate a mysterious anarchist organization known only as 'The East.'

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
• 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)