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The Trust Fall: Julian Assange (15)
Directed by Kym Staton
IT is almost five years now that the founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange has been held in Britain’s high-security Belmarsh prison without conviction, where he is still fighting extradition to the US where he faces up to 175 years in prison for publishing classified documents exposing US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His failing health, the smear campaign waged against him, and the impact on free speech if he is prosecuted in the US are all explored in Kym Staton’s powerful and thought-provoking new documentary, which features graphic images of violence.
Filmed over two years and narrated by Susan Sarandon, Roger Waters, M.I.A, Tom Morello and Jonathan Oldham, it features the video of the Collateral Murder incident which put a target on Assange’s back and is the basis of the espionage charges he is being accused of. It shows US soldiers laughing as they kill around a dozen civilians, including two Reuters journalists in 2007 in New Baghdad, Iraq, and injuring two youngsters. It makes harrowing viewing.
In a never-seen-before and heartbreaking interview, 10-year-old Sajad Mutashar, who was one of the victims, recounts those events in which he witnessed his father being gunned down.
It also features insightful interviews with the late John Pilger in what may be his last-ever appearance, former Vietnam war whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg who died last year, Tariq Ali, the political activist and journalist, as well as an array of experts and members of Assange’s family including his wife Stella.
While the film questions the role of the British government in kowtowing to the US which is determined to prosecute Assange at any cost, it also puts the spotlight on the Australian government for refusing to defend one of its own.
A Spanish psychiatrist who was part of a team that assessed Assange in prison reveals how he showed signs of psychological torture over a long period of time.
No British or US officials appear in the documentary, and it begs the question why Assange, a journalist, is still being held captive in a maximum-security jail, particularly given his deteriorating health, while those responsible for these war crimes remain free.
Out in cinemas tomorrow.
