It's an opportune time for this film to land, what with attacks on journalists filling the news cycle in recent days. The correspondent in question is Australian Peter Greste, who was arrested in Cairo at the end of 2013 while working for Al Jazeera. Potted history - the leaders of the military coup that ousted Mohamed Morsi want Al Jazeera brought to heel and so they accuse Greste and his crew of being agents for the Muslim Brotherhood, a party affiliated with Morsi.
The story plays out as a dissection of the kangaroo court that tried the three men, while also couching Greste's ordeal as a possible payback for his part in the death of a colleague years before. The film, directed by Kriv Stenders, is based on Greste's book about his arrest and imprisonment, The First Casualty, and there's also a credit for Greste as a story consultant, so I think it's safe to assume everything on screen has had final approval from the man himself.
It's all held together admirably by Richard Roxburgh, even if he's a fair bit older than Greste was at the time. All of the cast are fine, particularly Rahel Romahn, as fellow incarcerate, Baher Mohamed, and Geoffrey Hall's cinematography is suitably flared and dusty, with Sydney standing in for Cairo.
Peter Duncan's script flags a little here and there, possibly due to the need to be loyal to the real events. For example, the introduction of Alaa Abd El-Fattah (Mojean Aria) is important in reality but doesn't really add to, or drive the plot of the film. His minor reappearance later in the film seems like visual lip service.
There's an interesting, slightly veiled comment on the toothlessness of the Australian government of the time. Julie Bishop (Foreign Minister) is even named at one point when Greste is advised to withdraw his sentencing appeal. It also seems to hint that the Latvians were key to his release, after the ambassador presents him with a passport, via ancestry. It would appear that Greste harbours a few extra grudges.
The Correspondent is a vital film for our era, reminding us that the people we task with bringing us the truth are still being detained, imprisoned, and even killed at a crazily high rate around the world. The film, while not brilliant, tells a story that everyone should know.
There are special screenings on April 11th at the Luna Leederville and the Windsor, featuring an in-cinema Q&A session with Roxburgh and Greste. See here for details. It then opens at Luna and Palace in WA from Apr 17th.
See also:
The Egypt set thriller, Cairo Conspiracy (2022), directed by Tarik Saleh. For foreign correspondents risking their lives, take a look at Peter Weir's great film, The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) and Roland Jofeé's equally fine, The Killing Fields (1984).
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