Review: The documentary ‘Ithaka’ attempts a difficult defense of Julian Assange

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been held in London’s Belmarsh Prison since 2019, is a polarizing figure in many ways and worthy of debate about his motives, behaviour, tactics and friends. Did he help Donald Trump with the Democratic National Committee email dump to save his own ass? Is he more of a narcissistic hacktivist than a thoughtful whistleblower?

But his extradition from the United States to be tried here for WikiLeaks’ declassification of Iraq and Afghanistan war reports and communications under the Espionage Act – a conviction that would guarantee him maximum safe prison for the rest of his life – is something that should run the blood of journalists everywhere, whether you consider Assange a journalist or not. Just because he is a publisher, his persecution is a threat to democracy.

Needless to say, the unsympathetic provide the best-paraded examples of the powerful in maintaining a climate of control, and when power is government, curtailing press freedom is always in its sights. A new documentary, Ithaka, directed by Australian filmmaker Ben Lawrence and produced by Assange’s half-brother Gabriel Shipton, tests a corollary: Is a defense of Assange then best advocated by sidelining his presence, putting the likeable people front and center? and stick to the problem at hand?

“Ithaka” focuses on the fight to free Assange from his legal risk through the efforts of his 70-year-old father, John Shipton, and then-fiancé Stella Moris, with whom Assange has two children. (Assange and Moris got married last year.) While bidding their time in the UK awaiting the London trial that will decide his extradition status, they travel as needed to get politicians and organizations from other countries on their side as they participating in media coverage brings with it its own struggle to separate the personal from the political and rumor from fact.

Shipton and Moris are indeed figures to care about, their lives on an unimaginable line between caring for a loved one whose health and mental state are often reported as precarious and needing strength for their own campaign to find supporters. In particular, Shipton – who resembles his son’s lanky, soft voice, brimming with intelligence and pale features – is drawn to us by the obvious discomfort of being a subject of human concern in a fight he wants to focus on the his son’s plight and the cause of transparency and journalism. Lawrence carefully handles this man-versus-mission issue himself, briefly showing Shipton with a 6-year-old daughter in vérité footage at a friend’s house in rural England, but otherwise omitting details of Shipton’s family life in Australia .

Meanwhile, we see Moris looking after her and Assange’s boys, talking to Assange on the phone (we only occasionally hear snippets of a weak voice), and giving interviews that speak of her deep support for Assange’s work and her belief that he is a political prisoner whose life is in danger. The topic of psychological torture is raised in the film by interviewee Nils Melzer, a Swiss lawyer and UN human rights expert, who points to his own initial trepidation in investigating Assange’s case as evidence that character bias is an effective tool to pacify aid for Assange. .

Still, “Ithaka” is not as effective an advocacy document as it could be, sometimes feeling caught between wanting to intellectualize with on-screen text and contextualized history and seeking moments of observation that reflect the pain and concern for the Assange. crystallize family. Where Laura Poitras’s flawed but fascinating 2016 film “Risk” struggled admirably with her disillusionment with Assange as a person, “Ithaka” – clearly hoping to be a corrective – has a meandering quality, almost afraid to engage in controversy. packages that could be supplied. It’s not as important as what a successful prosecution of Assange portends ominously for journalism. People are complicated, as Shipton rightly argues at one point, but a more spirited, forceful defense might have helped “Ithaka” break out of his solemn reporter mood.