This Australian film is based factually on Australian foreign correspondent, Peter Greste, who was imprisoned in Egypt in 2013.
THE CORRESPONDENT. Starring Richard Roxburgh. Directed by Kriv Stenders. Rated M (Coarse language). 119 min.
Review by Peter W Sheehan, Jesuit Media Australia
Peter Greste is a dual citizen and Latvian-Australian writer-academic, who arrives in Cairo to cover for a colleague over the Christmas period of 2013, while working for Al Jazeera as a foreign correspondent. He accepted a last-minute posting during the Arab Spring, and he and two of his colleagues were arrested in Cairo and charged with terrorism offences.
As a fearless campaigner and advocate for media freedom, Greste wrote about his experiences in Egypt and the global war on journalism as he lived it. He was recipient of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Human Rights Medal, which was awarded to him in 2015. The film is a gripping biographical thriller that is relentless in its defence of truth in journalism and it powerfully demonstrates the triumph of the human spirit. It descends into a frightening nightmare which views Greste as collateral damage in a deadly game of corruption and political intrigue. It is based on Greste’s memoir, “The First Casualty”. The adapted screenplay for the film was written by Australian-born Screen-writer and Director, Peter Duncan.
The film focuses on the false imprisonment of Greste and the efforts taken to secure his freedom. The term “correspondent” specifically refers to the practice of filing news reports, and “foreign correspondent” references a person who reports from primarily foreign locations. Greste was sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Egyptian Court for aiding terrorism. He was arrested initially within a few hours of sending his reports, strip-searched, and accused of multiple crimes of terrorism which carried a possible death penalty. He served 400 days in multiple Egyptian prisons before being released in 2015. The film is the 10-year anniversary of Greste’s release from prison.
Kriv Stenders uses his skills as Director to project viewers into the complex politics of Cairo in the Christmas period of 2013 when Egyptian President, Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood Government were overthrown. Richard Roxburgh brilliantly plays Peter Greste, bringing both believability and vulnerability to the plight of Greste amidst the tensions of demoralising political intrigue and traumatic events.
The film is a very tightly drawn portrait of one man’s determination to speak the truth, regardless of the consequences, and it starkly contrasts the injustice of human imprisonment of journalists with the lucidity of verbal accounts of what can happen to them in fact. Richard Roxburgh is stunning as Greste, and the film is especially moving as Greste breaks down and weeps.
Peter W Sheehan is an Associate of Jesuit Media