THE TRUST FALL: JULIAN ASSANGE
Directed by Kym Staton
Certificate: 15
☆☆☆☆

JULIAN Assange is currently sitting in a prison cell in Belmarsh. As he has been doing for more than a decade, he is waiting to hear whether he should be flown to the US to face charges that, if convicted, would mean he spends the rest of his life in prison.

At the centre of the Assange story is murder in Iraq. The crew of an Apache gunship thought they had seen a man with a rocket-propelled grenade. They opened fire and killed innocent people.

When US intelligence operative Chelsea Manning saw these war logs, they knew they had to let the world know – and this leak kick-started a global controversy over the freedom of speech and our right to know when war crimes are committed by agents we are democratically responsible for.

This documentary is a heartfelt cry for help, a discourse on how the Assange case is, at its core, about the values of a liberal democracy. Are the cosy facades of our democracies just a smokescreen for the real power that find Wikileaks and Julian Assange a threat to the status quo?

Wikileaks casts a light on the truth of Western imperialism, and demolishes the idea of the good and virtuous nation fighting tyranny and terrorists.

Here we are offered an alternative opinion that asks you where you are getting information from. Key accusations are that he was accused of rape and ran away from justice, that he isn’t a “real” journalist but irresponsibly released thousands of un-redacted war logs that put people in danger, and has a massive ego.

But, as this film asks, why do you think these things? And does it have any bearing on whether he should be extradited?

We are given a run through of Wikileaks – “the largest bullshit detecting machine the world has ever seen”, as Assange calls it – and then shown how the leaks revealed the USA and UK breaking international laws.

Tariq Ali and the late John Pilger take apart political motivations, while the best voice is that of Daniel Ellsberg. He leaked the bombshell Pentagon Papers about the Vietnam War, and his calm reasoning about the motivations, impact and public interest will make even the most confirmed Assange denier think again.

As Tariq Ali says: “No one has been held accountable for the Iraq war. Having seen what the US-led invasion did to that country…it’s an absolute travesty. Wikileaks showed what the American empire is up to – and for that, they will not forgive. Thats why they are punishing him and started a huge campaign of slander to discredit him.”