The campaign to free Julian Assange takes on intimate dimensions in this documentary portrait of an elderly man’s fight to save his son. Arguably the world’s most famous political prisoner, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a figure pretty much everybody has an opinion about; perhaps more importantly, he serves as the emblem of an international arm wrestle over freedom of journalism, government corruption and unpunished war crimes. For his family members who face the prospect of losing him forever to the abyss of the US justice system, however, this David-and-Goliath struggle is personal – and, with his health declining in a British maximum-security prison and American government prosecutors pulling out all the stops to extradite him, the clock is ticking.
Direction
Ben Lawrence keeps Assange almost absent, making his presence felt through absence.
Editing
Juxtaposition of mundane prison visits against geopolitical stakes is brutal.
Director
Ben Lawrence
Julian Assange
Self (archive footage)
Donald Trump
Self (archive footage)
Theresa May
Self (archive footage)
Daniel Ellsberg
Self (archive footage)
Boris Johnson
Self (archive footage)
Edward Snowden
Self (archive footage)
Joe Rogan
Self (archive footage)
Ai Weiwei
Self
Sophie Raworth
Self (archive footage)
Joe Biden
Self (archive footage)
Bernie Sanders
Self (archive footage)
Vivienne Westwood
Self
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot across four years in real-time as extradition battles unfolded; release timing coincided with Assange's worst health crises in Belmarsh.
The title references Cavafy's poem about the journey mattering more than arrival—a bitter irony given Shipton's desperation to reach any destination that saves his son.
AU
