British PM all praise for Cumberbatch’s work in The Fifth Estate

Actor’s portrayal of Julian Assange is brilliant, says David Cameron.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has commended Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate and has showed “qualified support” for Assange’s early works, The Guardian reported.

Based on real life events that involved whistle-blowing and unearthing classified information, The Fifth Estate depicts WikiLeaks’ transition from a novel internet company to the “world’s most dangerous website,” as former WikiLeaks spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg calls it.

The prime minister was asked to review the film prior to his appearance on the current affairs programme The Agenda on ITV on Monday night. He managed to watch the first half of the film. Calling it a “fantastic piece of acting,” Cameron said that while WikiLeaks had done well initially when it uncovered corruption in Africa, its later works put lives at risk, reported IANS.

Advocating transparency as a “great disinfectant,” Cameron said, “Transparency about information and where money is spent and how it is spent – this helps keep governments and politicians honest. So it is a good thing”. However, he adds, “There is some information that the government has to keep secret for national security, for people’s safety. I think that needs to be part of the debate too,” reported The Guardian.

“The twitchiness and everything of Julian Assange is brilliantly portrayed,” Cameron said. But he feels Assange is shown to be more concerned about the fate of people the likes of Chelsea Manning who leaked documents to WikiLeaks, instead of those whose security may have been compromised by the leaks, The Guardian reported.

Directed by Bill Condon, The Fifth Estate has been selected as the closing film at the 15th Mumbai Film Festival organised by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image. The eight-day film fest will start on October 17.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10^th, 2013.

Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.