Peter Greste to attend Nambour movie screening

Nambour Cinema is set to host a special screening of The Correspondent on Friday, 9 May, (not Thursday as previously reported) featuring an appearance by the film’s subject, journalist Peter Greste. 

The event will commence at 6pm with an introductory talk by Mr Greste, followed by the film screening and a Q&A session. Attendees will also enjoy wine and savouries as part of the $25 ticket price. 

The Correspondent, directed by Kriv Stenders, stars Richard Roxburgh as Peter Greste, portraying his 400-day imprisonment in Egypt on charges widely condemned as politically motivated.  

Mr Greste, a veteran journalist with experience at Reuters, CNN, the BBC, and Al Jazeera, was arrested in Cairo in December 2013 alongside colleagues Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed. Their conviction sparked international outcry, highlighting issues of press freedom and judicial fairness. 

“It was bizarre seeing the story on the big screen,” Mr Greste told the Gazette. “I thought I’d processed it pretty well — I’ve written and spoken about my time in Egypt countless times over the years and even built a career on it, so I thought I’d worked it through pretty well, but the film captures the emotion of the experience very powerfully, and in ways I never really expected.” 

Since his release and deportation in February 2015, Mr Greste has been an advocate for media freedom, co-founding the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom and serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Queensland.  

“The Committee to Protect Journalists says we are now seeing more journalists killed and imprisoned for their work than at any time since they started gathering the data over 30 years ago,” he said. “That is really troubling, especially if we accept that media freedom is an essential part of a functioning democracy. We never set out to make a polemic film, but if it helps people think a bit more deeply about the importance of press freedom, we will have done something worthwhile.”    

Proceeds from the Nambour screening will support Friends of the ABC and efforts to assist journalists still imprisoned in Egypt. 

“First and foremost, this is a really good drama,” said Mr Greste. “Reviewers have been describing Richard Roxburgh’s performance as ‘career-defining’, so I hope people will come along to see a wonderful movie. But it is also for some really important causes. The ABC has copped a lot of criticism, but it is indisputably a vital cultural institution for Australia that we should all be supporting. And for obvious reasons, I am incredibly grateful for any support for my journalist colleagues still behind bars in Egypt.”  

“It was bizarre seeing the story on the big screen,” Mr Greste told the Gazette. Credit Louie Douvis.