Wikileaks, the whistleblower website set up by Julian Assange, hasn’t published any original documents in over five years.
That may represent a victory for governments that prefer to keep their inner workings secret, but it’s a loss for transparency and for democracy in the opinion of filmmaker Eugene Jarecki. He premiered his new film The Six Billion Dollar Man at the Cannes Film Festival, a documentary about the concerted effort by several U.S. administrations to handcuff Assange and squash Wikileaks.
“What we witnessed is about 15 years of going after Julian Assange to bury him and his team,” Jarecki asserted as he stopped by Deadline’s Cannes Studio. “Ultimately, the U.S. government was willing to spend $6 billion to try to destroy him, which is what the film really reveals.”
Legal fees and other prosecutorial costs account for a small portion of that $6 billion. The bulk of it, according to the film, came in the form of a (first) Trump administration aid package dangled in front of Ecuador to get the country to hand over Assange. The Wikileaks founder had taken refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid potential extradition to the U.S. on charges of conspiring to violate the U.S. Espionage Act.
Director Eugene Jarecki and Julian Assange at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival
Tristan Fewings/Getty Images
“A $6 billion figure was arrived at in the form of a loan that Ecuador desperately needed from the IMF [International Monetary Fund],” Jarecki said. “And isn’t that how America does so much of our overthrowing of democratically elected governments in the world, democratic systems in the world, is that we effectively bring the power of money to bear?”
In 2019, Ecuador revoked Assange’s asylum, forcing him out of the Embassy. He then spent five years in a U.K. prison fighting his extradition. Last year, Assange struck a deal with U.S. authorities whereby he pleaded guilty to obtaining and disseminating classified national defense information. In exchange, he was sentenced to time served and allowed to return to his native Australia. Assange traveled to France for the world premiere of The Six Billion Dollar Man.
Julian Assange poses for a photo at the Cannes Film Festival
Matthew Carey
“For Julian to be here,” Jarecki said, “having emerged victorious over the U.S. government in so many ways, and as such a cautionary tale about the excesses of America, I think it’s a very appropriate tale to be told at the Croisette in Cannes.”
The Six Billion Dollar Man won a Special Jury Prize at Cannes but doesn’t have U.S. distribution yet. Jarecki said, with a heavy dose of irony, that he expects no difficulty landing an acquisition deal for his film.
“I think this will just be catnip for American distributors,” he said. “I think they will run to purchase it and release it because they, after all, are in the pursuit of truth and they want us all to know what is happening in our world.”
Watch the full conversation in the video above.
Title: The Six Billion Dollar Man
Festival: Cannes (Special Screenings section)
Panelist: Eugene Jarecki (director)
Sales agent: WME
Running time: 126 min.
The Deadline Studio at Cannes is sponsored by SCAD, Cast & Crew and Final Draft.
