In ascolto (2006)

Estranged by the degree of corporate influence within the largest U.S. listening station in the world, an aging NSA officer defects and mounts a clandestine counter-listening station high in the Italian alps.

Director:

Giacomo Martelli

Writers:

Giacomo Martelli (story), Giacomo Martelli (screenplay)

Stars:

Michael Parks, Maya Sansa, Andrea Tidona

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Parks	...	James Wagley
Maya Sansa	...	Francesca Savelli
Andrea Tidona	...	Gianni Longardo
James Parks	...	Anthony Ashe
Matt Patresi	...	Guglia Graef
Bruce McGuire	...	Phil Kovacs
Vincent Riotta	...	Frank Vaughan
Terence Beesley	...	John Strobel
Carla Cassola	...	Tina Longardo
Giulia Bernardini	...	Katherine Palmer
Marc Fiorini	...	Lehmann
Adam O'Neill	...	Louis Perry
Jay Natelle	...	Bryden
Claudia Zanella	...	Annamaria
Harold Bradley	...	Polygraph Examiner

Storyline

Estranged by the degree of corporate influence within the largest U.S. listening station in the world, an aging NSA officer defects and mounts a clandestine counter-listening station high in the Italian alps.

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Plot Keywords:

nsa | hacking | surveillance | government surveillance | audio surveillance | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

28 April 2006 (Italy)

Also Known As:

The Listening

Filming Locations:

Elba Island, Livorno, Tuscany, Italy

Box Office

Budget:

€2,870,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

€87,968 (Italy), 30 April 2006, Limited Release

Company Credits

Production Co:

EchoFilm,Ammo Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min (European Film Market)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

User Reviews

Great Topic, so-so Execution

The story revolves around NSA's covert global listening espionage system called Echelon. It encompasses absolutely every communication system available, phones, internet, and other position tracking system including your passports and drivers license equipped with smart chips. When they make human implant chips mandatory, I'm sure it will be part of this system to profile your every movement.

The movie's topic is great. It's really a conspiracy theory, that's not a theory but reality. One phone company when asked "How much do you cooperate with NSA in divulging traffic information through your network ?", their answer was "Cooperate ? They're right inside us. They come into our building and set up their surveillance devices within our buildings. Two floors out of our 6 story communication hub is completely taken over by their machines.". The implication is that if your computer is equipped with microphones or cameras, they can use that to monitor your speech, and motion. Ditto for all phone systems. One anti-virus software company was reportedly approached by the NSA to build a backdoor to the software so they can monitor everything that goes on within the computer.

This information can as it is indicated at the end of this movie, bring billions in revenue to corporations working with NSA, and give NSA total tyranny over the world population.

What's even more disturbing is that NSA has no obligation to obtain congressional over site to perform these so called intelligence gathering operation. They basically have carte blanche to do whatever they please.

More movies like this should be made to bring these criminal activities that infringes on privacy, and information that will benefit only the insiders to light.

However, the movie's execution was bit weak, and the story seem to drag on without focus. I wished that they could have done better in this area.

So it's a good movie with intriguing plot, but story could have been better fleshed out.