The Fifth Estate

December 27 – January 2
Mezzanine Lounge Open Friday,December 27

The Fifth Estate
The Fifth Estate dramatically goes behind the scenes of the rise of Wikileaks, up to its publication of the trove of classified documents given by Private Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning. Based on two critical books about Wikileaks and its enigmatic founder, Julian Assange, the film tells of the introduction of Assange and German hacker genius Daniel Domscheit-Berg in 2007. Convinced by Assange’s description of Wikileaks as a utopian hacker community devoted to tearing down the barriers that allow lies to be perpetrated, Domscheit-Berg helps Assange create a home and hub for anyone to submit dangerous information, ostensibly with their identities protected. Private Manning’s submission, however, brings the pair into ethical conflict and the site into an existential crisis, as the two wrestle with publishing the information unredacted and start to collaborate with journalists at several major papers to spread it further. If you’ve paid attention to the news for the last few years, you’ll know what happens next. Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness) adds another impeccable performance to his gallery of prickly, chilly, difficult, and at times creepy characters, and is ably assisted by Daniel Bruhl (Goodbye Lenin!, Inglourious Basterds). Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times says, “The Fifth Estate raises fascinating, complex questions about the evolving nature of journalism, and whether publishing everything and anything with not a single stroke of editing is a victory for freedom — or a Big Brother fantasy that could get people killed.”

Dir.: Bill Condon / 2013 / US / Belgium / English / 128 min / Digital Cinema