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Citizenfour

  • 20142014
  • RR
  • 1h 54m
IMDb RATING
8.0/10
55K
YOUR RATING
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Citizenfour (2014)
A documentarian and a reporter travel to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden.
Play trailer1:27
1 Video
41 Photos
  • Documentary
  • Biography
  • History

A documentarian and a reporter travel to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden.A documentarian and a reporter travel to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden.A documentarian and a reporter travel to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden.

IMDb RATING
8.0/10
55K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Laura Poitras
  • Stars
    • Edward Snowden
    • Glenn Greenwald
    • William Binney
Top credits
  • Director
    • Laura Poitras
  • Stars
    • Edward Snowden
    • Glenn Greenwald
    • William Binney
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 125User reviews
    • 213Critic reviews
    • 88Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 Oscar
      • 44 wins & 39 nominations total

    Videos1

    Official Trailer
    Trailer 1:27
    Official Trailer

    Photos41

    Glenn Greenwald and Edward Snowden in Citizenfour (2014)
    GCHQ satellites in Bude, England
    The NSA
    Citizenfour (2014)
    Communication between Edward Snowden and director Laura Poitras
    Laura Poitras in Citizenfour (2014)
    Jodie Foster and Laura Poitras at an event for Citizenfour (2014)
    Citizenfour (2014)
    Citizenfour (2014)
    Citizenfour (2014)
    Citizenfour (2014)
    Citizenfour (2014)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Edward Snowden
    Edward Snowden
    • Selfas Self
    Glenn Greenwald
    Glenn Greenwald
    • Selfas Self
    William Binney
    William Binney
    • Selfas Self
    Jacob Appelbaum
    Jacob Appelbaum
    • Selfas Self
    Ewen MacAskill
    Ewen MacAskill
    • Selfas Self
    Jeremy Scahill
    Jeremy Scahill
    • Selfas Self
    M. Margaret McKeown
    • Self - Judgeas Self - Judge
    Kevin Bankston
    • Self - attorney representing Carolyn Jewelas Self - attorney representing Carolyn Jewel
    Harry Pregerson
    • Self - Judgeas Self - Judge
    H. Thomas Byron
    • Self - Government Representativeas Self - Government Representative
    Michael Daly Hawkins
    • Self - Judgeas Self - Judge
    Jonathan Man
    • Self - Human Rights Lawyeras Self - Human Rights Lawyer
    Robert Tibbo
    • Self - Human Rights Lawyeras Self - Human Rights Lawyer
    • (voice)
    José Casado
    • Selfas Self
    Roberto Kaz
    • Selfas Self
    • (as Robert Kaz)
    Julian Borger
    • Self - Editor, The Guardianas Self - Editor, The Guardian
    Paul Johnson
    • Selfas Self
    Nick Hopkins
    • Selfas Self
    • Director
      • Laura Poitras
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit
    In January 2013, Laura Poitras started receiving anonymous encrypted e-mails from "CITIZENFOUR," who claimed to have evidence of illegal covert surveillance programs run by the NSA in collaboration with other intelligence agencies worldwide. Five months later, she and reporters Glenn Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with the man who turned out to be Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her. The resulting film is history unfolding before our eyes. —Anonymous
    • mass surveillance
    • corrupt government
    • government surveillance
    • nsa
    • edward snowden
    • 51 more
    • Plot summary
    • Plot synopsis
    • Taglines
      • Witness the event that changed history: The Edward Snowden revelations.
    • Genres
      • Documentary
      • Biography
      • History
    • Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
      • Rated R for language
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Director Laura Poitras edited the film in Germany after flying directly there from Hong Kong with the Snowden footage, to prevent the FBI from showing up with a search warrant for her hard drives.
    • Goofs
      In the second CNN item (Friday, 53'), the Hebrew characters on the mobile phone in the background aren't censored in the first two shots. Afterwards the background has changed to only leave Latin characters on the dial pad.
    • Quotes

      Edward Snowden: Assume your adversary is capable of one trillion guesses per second.

    • Connections
      Featured in The EE British Academy Film Awards (2015)
    • Soundtracks
      02 Ghosts I
      Performed by Nine Inch Nails

      Written by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

      Courtesy of The Null Corporation

      Engineered by Chris Holmes

    User reviews125

    Review
    Top review
    9/10
    Watching history unfold before our eyes
    We all know that, in today's world, telling the truth may set you free, but it can also make you an inmate or a corpse. Activist folk singer Joan Baez, however, reminds us that, "Courage has to do with being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway." It is a fitting description of whistleblower Edward Snowden, whose story is told by the Oscar-nominated American filmmaker Laura Poitras (My Country, My Country) in her intimate and intense documentary Citizenfour. Snowden, a 29-year-old former NSA contractor and intelligence analyst, aware of the serious personal and legal consequences, nevertheless exposed the fact that the government, in the name of fighting terrorism, was spying on all American citizens and those of other countries, in every area of their lives, whether they were suspected of wrongdoing or not.

    According to Snowden, he was able to access anyone's records, bypassing codes, passwords and encryptions and said, "We are building the biggest weapon for oppression in the history of mankind." As the film begins, Poitras tells us in voice-over that, when she was working on a film about the dismantling of personal freedoms after the terrorist attack on 9/11, she began to receive encrypted e-mails with the codename of Citizenfour, revealing the desire to come forward with startling information about government surveillance.

    One of the e-mails told her that "In the end, if you publish the source material, I will likely be immediately implicated. I ask only that you ensure that this information makes it home to the American public." The film almost exclusively relies on edited conversations, mainly between Snowden and author and journalist Glenn Greenwald interspersed with TV news reports, courtroom trials, and Senate hearings where officials are shown lying at hearings about the government's role in data collection. It does not pretend to be objective and there is no debate about any of the issues brought up in the film or the efficacy of Snowden's actions. It is his story, told from his point of view.

    Interviewed by Poitras (who is unseen), Greenwald, at the time working for the Guardian, and reporter Ewen MacAskill in a room at the Mira Hotel in Hong Kong where Snowden remained in seclusion for eight days, the heretofore unknown whistleblower reveals his identity for the first time saying that he wants to come out publicly as the source of the information, to show the NSA "I'm not going to let you bully me into silence, like you have everyone else." Snowden says that he made the decision to come forward because he feels there's a great threat to the future of American free speech. "The elected and the electorate," he says, have become "the ruler and the ruled."

    Though he says repeatedly that he is not the issue and his personality should not deflect attention from the material disclosed, the human angle nonetheless becomes an important part of the film and we have an opportunity to assess the personality and character of man who has already played an important role in history. Through all of the discussion of his methods and the nature of the material he revealed, Snowden presents his case in an eloquent manner, remaining calm and centered, saying that he anticipated the consequences and is prepared for them.

    One of the few times he shows emotion is when talking about the government's interrogation of his girlfriend who, he says, knows nothing about his activities. The tension is palpable, however, and the film takes on aspects of a spy thriller when, after the information has gone public, everyone in the hotel room reacts with paranoia to the fire alarm testing going on in the hotel. Communication, however, eventually reverts to coded e-mails which Poitras shows on the screen when Snowden seeks asylum in Moscow. Though it reveals no new information that hasn't already been reported all over the world during the past eighteen months, Citizenfour is fascinating to observe as history unfolds before our eyes, offering the look and feel of immediacy, not that of a historical retrospective.

    While it has taken several years, the warning message in Al Gore's 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth on the potentially disastrous results of climate change seems at long last to be getting through, though even now, it may be too little, too late. When it comes to our right to privacy in today's wired world, however, the prospects are not as bright. Though perhaps preaching to the choir, the film is an important reminder that in the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter," or those of abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass who said, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." This film begins to crystallize that demand.
    helpful•73
    14
    • howard.schumann
    • Nov 20, 2014

    FAQ2

    • In an interview Snowden states that if a person is pretenting to be asleep, you can't wake them up. What does this mean?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 28, 2014 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • United Kingdom
      • Germany
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Official site
    • Languages
      • English
      • Portuguese
      • German
    • Also known as
      • CitizenFour
    • Filming locations
      • Room 1014, Mira Hotel, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
    • Production companies
      • Praxis Films
      • Participant
      • HBO Documentary Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $2,800,870
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $126,321
      • Oct 26, 2014
    • Gross worldwide
      • $3,780,692
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 54 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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