Greetings again from the darkness. Edward Snowden. You know the name and you know the story. Hero of the People or Enemy of the State? Ultimate Patriot or a double-spy for the Russians? Protected as a Whistle-Blower or Guilty of Treason? Chances are you long ago made up your mind on how you view Ed (his stated name preference).

In January 2013, Snowden contacted documentarian Laura Poitras via an anonymous email name "Citizenfour". By June, the two were meeting in a Hong Kong hotel along with journalist Glenn Greenwald. What follows is a mesmerizing look at the actual footage shot of Greenwald interviewing Snowden. This is Ed Snowden before the media storm. This is Ed Snowden continually proclaiming that he is not the story, and he is trusting Greenwald to determine what documents are fit for public release. He voices concern about jeopardizing national security, while at the same time being adamant about exposing the immense and widespread governmental tracking of digital movements by millions of people … most with no known ties to terrorism.

The timeline is public record, so the core of the film is really an intimate look at the man who, acutely aware of the coming fallout, proceeded with pulling the curtain back on NSA actions that he deemed inappropriate. Ms. Poitras structures the film as a thriller, and it will certainly cause tension in every viewer. We can't help but put ourselves in Snowden's shoes. Would we feel the need to go public with proof? Who would we tell? How would we tell them? Would we be willing to release our name, knowing it could put everyone we love in danger? Would we be prepared to watch our President publicly call us out as unpatriotic and a danger to the nation? These questions are impossible for us to answer, but add weight to the scenes of Snowden answering Greenwald's questions while Ms. Poitras works the camera.

One of the more interesting points made in the movie is that what we once termed individual freedom and liberties, is now couched as privacy. We have come to expect our privacy, and certainly don't appreciate our government digging through our emails, search history, texts and phone calls. But how to balance the individual "right" to privacy with the government's need to collect intelligence in the name of national security? That's the key question, and one with no clear answer.

Regardless of your opinion on Snowden and his actions, the film presents him as an idealist believing he is doing the right thing. Most of this occurs before the media firestorm, but we do see the anticipated fallout. Once Snowden goes into hiding, we witness Greenwald becoming the face and voice of the cause. He is a talented journalist and exceptional speaker, and doesn't back down from the reaction of those who stand accused.

The film allows us to take notice of the personal attacks on Snowden as an attempt discredit his documentation. Making Snowden the story distracted the media and the general public from the real issue. It's a fascinating film that will surely make you uncomfortable and cause re-evaluation of the chain of events. You may not change your mind, but you will most certainly have a better understanding of the human side.

CITIZENFOUR is the documentary that was being shot when US whistleblower Edward Snowden decided to go public with his story of America's NSA spying on its own citizens as well as the rest of the world. It's a vivid, paranoid tale told in a thoroughly compelling way, no matter what you think of the protagonist and his motives.

The documentary kicks off by explaining the background to the situation to its viewers before holing up with Snowden in a Hong Kong hotel, where things begin to play out in real time. And from this point in it becomes unmissable, a story of paranoia and spying in a digital age. It's frightening how much this has in common with the likes of the supposedly fictional Bourne movies.

There's an element of tragedy here, a la THE INTERNET'S OWN BOY, which told how Aaron Swartz was persecuted in a similar (but even less deserving) way, but in the end I found this to be a story of hope: how a team of dedicated journalists can outwit even one of the most powerful agencies in the world.

The best way that the Academy Award nominated documentary "Citizenfour" (and likely winner with the Ebert documentary not even nominated) can best described is a real life thriller. The material is basically a good script for a great thriller as well. It was even said at one part in the film that it could come right out of a John Le Carré novel. It is the newest film by Academy Award nominated director Laura Poitras and it was an interesting watch from start to finish with only very few exceptions. Here and there the film became too technical (internet science) or too difficult in terms of the law to understand for broad audiences. But it's not too often luckily. The best parts of these almost two hours where the scenes where we see Snowden live in Hongkong while television reports about the events that he started. Edge-of-seat stuff. The weakest part is probably the ending. The whole "this is not the end by far" part with the paper snippets and everything and Snowden acting like "wow this is so dangerous" felt truly cringeworthy to me sadly. Like taken from a bad thriller movie.

Another positive mention goes to the fire alarm scene. I don't know if this was staged or real, but it had some comedic weirdness and danger to it. Nicely done. The film includes some sequences where we see chat communication between the protagonists which had already been done in the Wikileaks documentary from a year ago. That's not a criticism though. It worked well. Also, talking about Wikileaks, there is also one interview with Julien Assange about Snowden. As a whole, this is a good documentary with lots of contemporary importance. I am not sure if it is good enough to win the Oscar or if I would call it the best documentary film of the year, probably not, but its worth a watch and it is also certainly better than last year's very forgettable winner "20 Feet from Stardom". And it also offers some nice ground for discussion afterward about how it is acceptable to trade personal privacy for more protection from terrorist attacks. Anyway, nice to see Snowden stand up and tell people about the uncountable criminal activities of the Obama administration, especially in the light of people treating him as the new messiah after the Bush presidency. Boy did he disappoint in the last 6 years, not only in terms of his global surveillance.