The Six Billion Dollar Man: Julian Assange in Cannes
We left him on the roads of America, with his metaphoric and incisive portrait of pre-Trump United States: eight years after Promised Land, Eugene Jarecki traces the life of cybermilitant Julian Assange in The Six Billion Dollar Man, a documentary taking the form of a high-tech thriller was presented at a Special Screening of the 78th Cannes Film Festival.
In Promised Land, while travelling across the United States in Elvis’ famous Rolls Royce, Jarecki draws a parallel between the King’s America and present-day United States, highlighting the flaws in the American dream. In this road movie the filmmaker was already giving a voice to social outcasts, anonymous or famous figures, to paint a portrait of a country in decline.
Equipped with privileged access to the WikiLeaks archives, Eugene Jarecki now explores the saga of Julian Assange, founder of this non-governmental organisation in 2006, intended to publish classified documents. Assange, an icon of the right to information, has been deprived of freedom many times since 2010, dating back to revelations of American war crimes. After being incarcerated in 2019 in the United Kingdom, he was charged for espionage and was the subject of a request for extradition to the United States. He appeared before an American court in the Mariana Islands in 2024, before being released and free to go back to Australia.
“You may think you know the story of Julian Assange,” Says the director, “but in truth, much of what the public knows — especially through mainstream media — was choreographed by those in power.” He continues: “With ‘The Six Billion Dollar Man’, I set out to reveal shattering truths behind the Assange saga, but also to examine what it reveals about today’s world, a world increasingly dominated by the very
surveillance and out-of-control power he and WikiLeaks once sought to expose.”
“This is not a film about activism or martyrdom. It’s about what happens when someone threatens the
centres of global power. Like him personally or not, that’s what Assange’s did. My hope is that this film serves as a warning and a provocation. With journalism under attack across the world, the duty to bear witness may no longer rest with institutions, but with individuals.”
— Eugene Jarecki
In keeping with Citizenfour (2014) by Laura Poitras — winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary for her story about Edward Snowden — The Six Billion Dollar Man is one of these essential films in a time where the truth is threatened more than ever.
Editor in Chief of Ikon London Magazine, journalist, film producer and founder of The DAFTA Film Awards (The DAFTAs).
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