, 2 min read
Short Review on Film Citizenfour
Original post is here eklausmeier.goip.de/blog/2014/11-09-short-review-on-film-citizenfour.
Yesterday I went to the movie with my family and watched Laura Poitras's film Citizenfour. The movie in Frankfurt was completely sold out, many prospects had to be sent home, because there were no more seats available. I just got a ticket because I had a high number on the waiting list. I am surprised that the movie is not shown in the "big" movies, but rather in small and lesser known movies.
The film is basically the story when Edward Snowden contacted [Laura Poitras](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Poitras "Laura Poitras") and when they finally meet in Hong Kong together with [Glenn Greenwald](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Greenwald "Glenn Greenwald"). When Snowden has to go underground in Hong Kong, the film shows some scenes from lawyers discussing the case and putting their cell phones into a refrigerator, [William Binney](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Binney_(U.S._intelligence_official) "William Binney") reporting in a committee of the German parliament, the construction work at the [NSA data center in Utah](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah_Data_Center "NSA Utah Data Center"), and other Snowden related revelations. At the end of the film they meet in Moscow again.It is striking that you can produce a film where the scenery is mainly a hotel room, sometimes the hotel floor, and despite that keep suspense. You can see and feel how Snowden is more and more concerned about the wellbeing of his loved-ones which get interrogated. The interception of Angela Merkel's phone is only mentioned in passing, as is the detention of David Miranda, the partner of Glenn Greenwald.
In the final credits of the film Laura Poitras thanks Edward Snowden, of course, and GPG, Debian and Ubuntu.