An exotic tale of loyalty, passion and peril in a foreign land, Far East plays out amidst a hotbed of political tension in the Philippines during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Journalist Peter Reeves (John Bell) and his wife Jo (AFI Award winner Helen Morse, Caddie, Picnic at Hanging Rock) arrive in Manila at a time when the Government is brutally crushing the growing protest movement. One night, they venture to ‘The Koala Klub’, a notorious watering hole situated deep in the heart of Chinatown, run by charismatic former-soldier Morgan Keefe (AFI Award winner Bryan Brown, ’Breaker’ Morant, Two Hands). Catering for ex-pat Westerners, it is familiar territory to Jo who knew Keefe when she was a nightclub singer in Saigon during the Vietnam War.
Researching the complicity of Multinational companies in Government repression, Peter links up with local activist Rosita Constanza and the two are seized by the secret police, likely to be 'disappeared' at the whim of their captors. Faced with a wall of silence, an increasingly desperate Jo turns to Morgan and together they hatch a daring plan to liberate Peter before it is too late. Directed by internationally acclaimed filmmaker John Duigan (The Year My Voice Broke, Sirens), Far East is "a good old-fashioned romance" (David Stratton), reflecting a significant era of political and cultural change in the Asia-Pacific region.