REALITY
USA / 2023 / 83’
Director: Tina Satter
Producer: Brad Becker-Parton, Riva Marker, Greg Nobile, Noah Stahl
Cast: Sydney Sweeney, Josh Hamilton, Marchánt Davis
Runtime: 1h 23m
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The social media profile of a young woman includes pictures of her pets, her friends, and her exercise routine. But on June 2, 2017, the posts come to an end. This film begins on the following day and contains verbatim dialogue from the unedited transcript of an FBI audio recording. The audience witnesses the protagonist – played by Sydney Sweeney – arriving at her home in Georgia, only to be met by two men outside who politely inform her that they have a search warrant. What follows is a chamber piece focusing on the interrogation of whistle-blower Reality Winner and the search of her home.
Reality Leigh Winner is an American U.S. Air Force veteran and former NSA translator. In 2018, she was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for an unauthorized release of government information to the media after she leaked an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.
Reality premiered at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival and received positive reviews from critics with praise aimed at Satter's direction as well as the cast performances (particularly Sweeney's).
Satter melds fact and fiction with meticulous and ultimately stunning results. As a spellbinding example of a new form of docudrama, “Reality” is the kind of movie that demonstrates what cinema can do in the hands of true artists: maybe not change the world, but widen and deepen our understanding of it.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post