Underground Julian Assange’s Early Years

Posted 11 years ago by myetvmedia

Underground: WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange’s Early Years Robert Connolly TIFF 2012 Review

What could be more timely than a movie about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange?

Underground is award-winning Australian director Robert Connolly’s latest thriller based on true events surrounding WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s early years. Connolly wrote and directed Underground, a story that follows a group of schoolboys in the 1980’s who used Commodore 64 Computers in Melbourne, Australia to hack into high-level company and government websites. The film stars Anthony LaPaglia (Lantana), Academy Award nominee Rachel Griffiths (Hilary and Jackie), Laura Wheelwright (Animal Kingdom), Jordan Raskopoulos, The Axis of Awesome), Callan McAuliffe (I Am Number Four), Benedict Samuel (Home and Away) with newcomer Alex Williams in the lead role.

Underground is the true story of a group of school boys in Melbourne who hacked into some of the biggest corporate and military organizations in the world, at the dawn of the internet age. “

Helen Bowden, Producer at Matchbox Pictures

Julian Assange is an ardent activist for freedom of the press. He speaks out against censorship and the need for investigative journalism. As founder of WikiLeaks, a non-profit organization that publishes submissions from anonymous whistleblowers, he has embarrassed several governments with the exposure of top-secret material; information that implicates governments including the US for the potential perpetration of monstrous crimes against humanity. The US is currently trying to extradite Julian Assange for the Cablegate disclosures.

Underground tells the story of Julian Assange’s early years living in Australia with his mother (Rachel Griffiths) and younger brother. We meet Julian (Alex Williams) at the age of about 17. He and his mother and brother live in constant fear, on the run from a man who belongs to a cult called The Family. The man is intent on kidnapping Julian’s younger brother. He has been pursuing them for at least eleven of the fifteen years that the cult has existed. Julian and his mother have tried desperately over the years to get the attention of the press and assistance from police to protect them from The Family cult. Police and media had not taken action. The Police  did not understand the reality of  The Family cult and the terrible circumstances that kidnapped children in it lived under. Julian’s mother is an anti nuclear activist.  Julian tells his mother her activism is too small in its reach and the story clearly sets the stage for Julian’s activities — his distrust for the authorities and the need for journalism that exposes hidden truths in an uncensored, timely fashion.


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Underground Julian Assange’s Early Years

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