Inside Wikileaks - The Fifth Estate

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Movie
German title Inside WikiLeaks - The Fifth Estate
Original title The Fifth Estate
Country of production United States , Belgium
original language English
Publishing year 2013
length 124 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 10
Rod
Director Bill Condon
script Josh Singer
production Steve Golin ,
Michael Sugar
music Carter Burwell
camera Tobias A. Schliessler
cut Virginia Katz
occupation

Inside WikiLeaks - The Fifth Estate (Original Title: The Fifth Estate ) is an American film directed by Bill Condon from 2013 . The film thematizes the history of the WikiLeaks disclosure platform from the first leaks to the shutdown of the Wikileaks server in 2010 due to the publication of secret US military documents. The film plot is based primarily on the autobiographical publication Inside WikiLeaks by Daniel Domscheit-Berg about his collaboration with the network activist Julian Assange and the book WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy published by the two British journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding .

Plot and background

The general framework and film plot of Inside WikiLeaks is the story of the whistleblower internet platform WikiLeaks. Dramaturgically, the film focuses on the two platform founders and main actors Daniel Domscheit-Berg ( Daniel Brühl ) and Julian Assange ( Benedict Cumberbatch ). The beginning of the story - after a short introduction to the history of information publication from the early days to the last print edition of the renowned news magazine Newsweek - is the meeting between Domscheit-Berg and Assange. In chronological form, the film is devoted to the individual stages of WikiLeaks history: the establishment of the necessary infrastructure, the contacts, the milieu of conspiratorial hackers and data carriers, the first data publications such as the one on the Swiss private bank Julius Baer 2008 and other subsequent WikiLeaks -Coups. The climax is the spectacular publication of US military documents in 2009 and 2010, which - according to a partial admission and according to the opinion of the US authorities - are largely due to the IT specialist and Army member Bradley Manning and the partial publication of which ultimately led to the shutdown of WikiLeaks.

Inside WikiLeaks focuses less on the platform's spectacular publications - such as the collateral murder video material with the shooting of civilians in Iraq from a helicopter. The dramaturgical highlight is above all the collaboration with representatives from Spiegel , Guardian and New York Times - the media that were willing to publish WikiLeaks information under certain conditions. Just like Domscheit-Berg's book, the film also focuses heavily on the conflict that ultimately led to the break between Domscheit-Berg and Assange: the question of the modalities under which the explosive documents should be published. While Domscheit-Berg and the journalists involved are aiming for an edited publication (among other things to protect potentially endangered sources ), Assange insists on the publication of the complete data material. The film ends chronologically with Domscheit-Berg's shutdown of the central WikiLeaks software in 2010. The film's final scene is a fictional interview with Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London .

In terms of representation, the film claims to tell an authentic story. The plot is largely based on the real story of WikiLeaks and the portrayal of Daniel Domscheit-Berg and the two Guardian journalists who were involved in the so-called "Cablegate" . However, some elements of the plot are of a fictional nature - for example details of the meeting of Julian Assange with the family of Daniel Domscheit-Berg and the love story contained in the film.

Production and Marketing

  • Benedict Cumberbatch (2011)

  • Daniel Brühl (2009)

  • Moritz Bleibtreu (2007)

  • Alicia Vikander (2013)

  • Anthony Mackie (2013)

  • Stanley Tucci (2010)

  • Laura Linney (2009)

  • Carice van Houten

  • Peter Capaldi (2009)

  • Dan Stevens (2009)

According to an article on the internet platform heise online , three quarters of the film is based on the book by Daniel Domscheit-Berg and a quarter on that of the two British journalists Leigh and Harding. Production companies were Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks and the Disney spin-off Touchstone Pictures . Inside WikiLeaks is distributed internationally by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures . In Europe , the Middle East and Africa , independent sales partners do this part. Filming for Inside WikiLeaks began on January 23, 2013. Filming locations were cities such as B. Liège (in and at the Liège-Guillemins train station) and Berlin. As an alternative to the two main actors Brühl and Cumberbatch, the two actors James McAvoy and Jeremy Renner were discussed for a while. While Daniel Brühl and the real Daniel Domscheit-Berg cultivated a lively exchange in order to make the role of Domscheit-Berg more authentic, Julian Assange expressed himself more and more negative about the film project. The film itself was shot with an international cast. Supporting roles were played by the German actors Moritz Bleibtreu , Ludger Pistor , Axel Milberg and Edgar Selge , the British actors Dan Stevens and Peter Capaldi, and the Americans Anthony Mackie, Stanley Tucci and Laura Linney. The Icelandic pirate politician Birgitta Jónsdóttir was played by the Dutch actress Carice van Houten, Domscheit-Berg's life partner Anke Domscheit-Berg by the Swedish actress and dancer Alicia Vikander. The film music was composed by the conductor and orchestrator Carter Burwell . The performers of individual tracks are the Brazilian drum and bass musician Amon Tobin , the British electronic musician Emika and the Australian psychedelic rock band Tame Impala . The soundtrack was released on October 8th on Lakeshore Records .

Inside WikiLeaks premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2013. The German premiere was - nine days before the official cinema release - on October 21 in the Kulturbrauerei in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg . It was attended, among others, the two film actors Daniel Brühl and Edgar Selge, Daniel Domscheit-Berg and Anke Domscheit-Berg, politician Philipp Rösler , the producer Oliver Berben , the two actors Thomas Heinze and Tom Schilling and with the Pirates committed musicians and Ex- Green Bruno Kramm .

The box office results remained well below expectations, despite the below-average production costs. According to the online industry service Meedia , the start in the USA was a flop: the film only grossed 1.7 million dollars on the opening weekend - a result that is in the lower range for DreamWorks productions.

Disputes and public response

There had already been controversies about the content and direction of the film in advance. The main points of contention were the portrayal of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the portrayal of the conflict over the publication of the US military documents, which had led to the rift between Domscheit-Berg and Assange. Julian Assange had withdrawn early on. In several emails and letters he asked the lead actor Cumberbatch to refrain from the film project. Before appearing, he published mails to Cumberbatch in which he referred to him as a "hired gun" and as a job-working actor who was paid to follow a script, no matter how distorted it was. In addition, Assange expressed the suspicion that the film was ultimately serving to propagate a foreign policy agenda - specifically: the propaganda preparation for a war against Iran . As an alternative, in terms of the history of WikiLeaks, he recommended the produced by WikiLeaks documentary Mediastan , which was distributed from mid-October 2013, the Internet - for example via the video platform Vimeo . There were also differences with the Chaos Computer Club (CCC). For example, certain scenes were only allowed to be filmed on the condition that the CCC logo was not shown in the film.

Reviews in the US immediately after the film premiered were mixed. Some media - for example the Daily Telegraph and the entertainment industry paper Variety - took the view that the film was overambitious or did not do justice to the complexity of the material. The film received praise from the Guardian and the US weekly Entertainment Weekly . The voices were similarly mixed after the German premiere. In an online review, Der Spiegel mainly listed formal deficiencies and the poor display of events, which mainly take place between the keyboard and the screen. In addition, Inside WikiLeaks is not very exciting either. In particular, the motivation of the actual main character, Julian Assange, remains pale and nebulous. The criticism of the reviewer from faz.net also got on the contradicting figure of the WikiLeaks founder . The film review portal critic.de noted in its review that a little modesty would have done the film better. The makers failed to want to make not one , but the Wikileaks film. On the other hand, announcements and film texts from the FBW branch service with the award of the rating “particularly valuable” and on the Stern's online site were positively interested . The SZ columnist Andrian Kreye calls the film a melodrama and not a political thriller that it could have become under the aegis of Oliver Stone, Steven Soderbergh or George Clooney. For him the film is a "phenomenon of pop, which has always drawn its strength from the radical chic of subcultures." The musician and pirate activist Bruno Kramm also rated the film positively : The film makes the questions raised by WikiLeaks known to a wider audience. The problems raised in the film, according to Kramm in his weblog, are in a way comparable to the current positions of the Pirate Party on the subject of data protection: Here, too, the spectrum currently ranges from decisive data protection to post-privacy advocates.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Approval for Inside Wikileaks - The Fifth Estate . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2013 (PDF; test number: 141 352 K).
  2. ^ Age rating for Inside Wikileaks - The Fifth Estate . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ a b c d e movie "Inside Wikileaks": "There is blood on Assange's hands!" , Detlef Borchers, faz.net, October 23, 2013
  4. ↑ a b Inside Wikileaks - the fifth power , Detlef Borchers, heise.de, October 23, 2013 0213
  5. ↑ Inside Wikileaks - The fifth power , moviepilot.de, accessed on October 27, 2013 0213
  6. ^ A b "Inside Wikileaks" - enemies of the state in Prenzlauer Berg , Laura Fölmer, Berliner Morgenpost, October 21, 0213
  7. ^ "The Fifth Estate" soundtrack details , Film Music Reporter, September 20, 2013
  8. ↑ German premiere of Wikileaks-Film , focus, .de, October 22, 2013 0213
  9. ↑ Wikileaks film totally flops at the start ( memento of the original from October 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Jens Schröders, meedia.de, October 21, 2013  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / meedia.de
  10. ^ The Fifth Estate, Toronto Film Festival, review , Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph, Sept. 6, 2013
  11. ↑ Toronto Film Review, "The Fifth Estate," Dennis Harvey, Variety, September 5, 2013
  12. ^ The Fifth Estate - review , Peter Bradshaw, Daily Telegraph, Oct.10, 2013
  13. ↑ Toronto 2013: "The Fifth Estate" is a feverish tale of cyberjournalism , Owen Gleiberman, Daily Telegraph, September 6, 2013
  14. ↑ Wikileaks film "The Fifth Estate": Failed due to the data godparent , Andreas Borcholte, spiegel.de, September 6, 2013
  15. ^ Filmkritik , Till Kadritzke, Critic.de, October 28, 2013
  16. ↑ Inside Wikileaks - the fifth estate , FBW press release, FBW. German film and media rating, accessed on October 27, 2013
  17. ↑ Behind the scenes of the disclosure platform ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , stern.de, October 21, 2013  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stern.de
  18. ↑ Bill Condon's "Inside Wikileaks" phenomenon of pop , Andrian Kreye, sz.de, October 30, 2013 0213
  19. ↑ Movie review: Inside Wikileaks - An ode to transparency , Bruno Kramm brunokramm.wordpress.com, October 22, 2013

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