Fans of Assange will love this film, sane viewers will drop off to sleep about three minutes in. After viewing this title I cared more for the pigeon on the cover than I did Julian Assange himself.
Plot summary
The bleak, mountainous terrain and quiet, lonely roads set the tone for this compelling venture into the heart of 'the Stans'. The first stop is Asia Plus, a newspaper in Tajikistan. "If we were to talk too freely about our taboos, what kind of taboo would that be?" asks the Editor-in-Chief, Marat Mamadshoev, with a smile. "We'd rather get approval from our superior first..." he says nervously. "The Washington DC overlord of Asia Plus!" Given the go-ahead, the team pours over the material. Speaking over Skype, Assange warns, "Read all of it. If you go searching for particular things you will bring your own prejudice to the material." But as the Wikileaks team move on to their next meeting, soon the call comes, "the problem is that there are many things in the cables that we cannot publish...because we will get into trouble". At the offices of the Kazakh Telegraph Agency the team receive a more frosty reception. "Why have you come here? If an unskilled man gets access to this data it will lead to anarchy!" Editor-in-Chief of the magazine 'Expert Kazakhstan' says with a shrug, "You are wasting your life in vain. Nothing will come out of it." After an arduous trek, back in their UK base the team take stock. "These boundaries of free speech, they look different in different countries, but they always exist in one way or another." In London and Washington the Editors-in-Chief of The Guardian and the New York Times speak frankly about the issues of "protecting individuals" and "self-censorship" and making tough decisions about whether or not to publish leaked government data. Sitting in front of a wall of framed pictures of US Presidents and politicians, Bill Keller discusses how, "a lot of presidents and foreign ministers...troop through here...to air their views". A potent road map of the fragile connections between the press, the public and the silent powers that control them.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 863.97 MB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
Movie Reviews
Reviewed by
Vehicle for Assange to spread propaganda
Reviewed by
My beard is my passport
OK I got here after Fifth Estate - a Hollywooded fairy tale story about WikiLeaks - well depending where you sit on the fence I suppose. So I thought I'd give Mediastan a shot, WikiLeaks own documentary. A journey with Julian's "Remote control" team trying to wheel and deal by "giving away" the diplomatic cables. Giving away the unredacted diplomatic cables after signing a Memorandum of Understanding which is non-binding and represents nothing more than a gentleman's agreement between the two parties - not my words - the remote teams words - that seems bloody irresponsible because once the cables are given to these outlets where else would they go unredacted? You have lost all control – was that the point to this whole exercise? This demonstrates by itself to me how wreckless Assange truly is. Oh the MoU appeared to be in English and these Newspaper editors didn't seems to have a good understanding of English - ie probably didn't understand what they were asked to sign - simply irresponsible by all parties involved. Filming quality was not bad in general, for an amateur. Much better than I expected. As was sound quality. But the documentary itself was lacking with little or no substance. So there we open with Julian in Northfolk reviewing one presumes a US cable with a college and they fall over themselves laughing at "...is already in correspondence with Karl Rove".. Excuse me, Hello?, Over here? Let me into the joke please, I had to go and Google Karl Rove – it didn't help. Some context would be awfully nice chaps. Then we move to the 5 "tourists" otherwise known as Jullian's remote control. The opening gambit about printing or re-printing positive American material in the local press. They were stating that the press would be paid to re-print this material - but he read it out loud at verbatim - yes there was an incentive - but nowhere did it say they would be obliged to re-print anything. It was very interesting how the "boss" of these newspapers were not in central asia but somewhere else like Czech republic or the US itself. What I have to say at the end of all this is Julian Assange is just someone who "lucked out" With Manning but left the poor guy high and dry for what is it? 35 years?? And for what? To put Wikileaks out there and hope to catch some other poor unsuspecting poor soul.
Finally if you are going to cross a boarder, and get intercepted by gits carrying rifles then telling those people "my beard is my passport" deserves to get you some time. Admittedly 5 years at Guantanamo Bay is harsh, I mean it was an impressive beard after all.
Reviewed by
Absolutely fascinating insight into the real WikiLeaks
This film follows a media team traveling down the old silk road across Central Asia contacting media organisations to partner with to publish Cablegate communications relevant to each country.
Fantastic fly on the wall point of view with artistic photography of beautiful terrain and scenery not usually seen. The soundtrack gives the film an urgent vitality that makes the whole gripping.
You learn truths about the countries view of their press freedom, and when it comes down to publishing the actual cables you see how a "free press" is in actuality quite rare.
Best Film I have seen in 2 years... Highly Recommended.