Latvian-Australian journalist Peter Greste became the story when he was arrested in Cairo in 2013 on trumped-up terrorism charges with two of his Al Jazeera colleagues. In a sham trial the following year he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in prison, ultimately spending 400 days there. It’s no spoiler to say that director Kriv Stenders’ grittily immersive film about Greste’s story has a happy ending – Greste was returned to Australia in 2015 and freed – capping off a tense and twitchy viewing experience, where the pressure valve is released only at the very last minute.
Richard Roxburgh is in fine form as Greste, eschewing the slippery charisma he does so well (in TV shows such as Rake and Prosper) to depict the protagonist as a pragmatic but deep-thinking individual, navigating a crisis in which he’s close to powerless. At one point Greste is told by a fellow prisoner that he won’t survive “unless you’re able to make peace with yourself”. Lines like that can feel on the nose, but this moment registers, feeding into an important part of Greste’s characterisation – as a person who responds to extreme situations partly by looking inwards, analysing himself as well as his circumstances.
