A Film on Julius Assange,The Wiki Leaks Founder is being released.
It is being screened at the Toronto Film Festival.
Story and Trailer.
The Fifth Estate, an unlikely thriller that chronicles the emergence of anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks and its enigmatic founder Julian Assange, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
English actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Assange, called the debut at Toronto the “perfect marriage” of a festival, known for its popular participation, and a film, about what he called “people journalism.”
The festival is also considered a harbinger of the awards season. Films that have fared well in Toronto, like Slumdog Millionaire, have gone on to win best picture Oscars.
Some 366 films, including 146 world premieres, will screen over 11 days. Transparency and secrecy in the Internet age have emerged as prevalent themes in the programme, led by The Fifth Estate.
The film, made and distributed by Disney/Dreamworks, was chosen to kick off Toronto weeks after former government contractor Edward Snowden leaked US surveillance data with the help of WikiLeaks and Assange.
“As we have seen in the Edward Snowden case, this is a story that continues to be central, and we have also seen that people of great intelligence and goodwill disagree,” director Bill Condon told the Toronto audience.
Condon said The Fifth Estate was not a judgement about WikiLeaks or Assange, but a portrayal of a complex issue that raises more questions than answers about the struggle between transparency, privacy and the security implications.
Julian Assange has hit out at a Hollywood film about his secret-spilling website WikiLeaks, calling the movie “a massive propaganda attack”.
Speaking to students at Britain’s prestigious Oxford University by video link from the Ecuadoran embassy in London, Mr Assange revealed that he had acquired a copy of the script for The Fifth Estate, due to be released in November.
“It is a lie upon lie. The movie is a massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff,” Mr Assange said to the university’s Oxford Union debating club.
Source:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-24/assange-hits-out-at-wikileaks-movie/4482426
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