“Ithaka” (M) *** and a half

TO understand the somewhat enigmatic title of this documentary, we need to make a brief visit to ancient mythology. 

Odysseus, aka Ulysses (or vice versa) has set out for home after victorious Greek armies finished overwhelming Troy. Where’s home? It’s west of Greece on a little Ionian island. 

One line from Virgil’s epic poem, “The Aeneid”, telling the story of his 10 years wandering the Mediterranean back to Ithaka lives as a modern proverb. Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes (beware of Greeks bearing gifts). 

Whether it was writer/director Ben Lawrence or Julian Assange’s father John Shipton who chose “Ithaka” for the film’s title isn’t important. But it’s certainly an apposite summation for what it’s saying. US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning personifies the Greeks. The gifts which she provided to WikiLeaks publisher Assange in 2010 are the leaks. 

Subsequently, the US government launched and continues to pursue a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks for publishing secret and embarrassing information. There are those who will argue that this was a freedom-of-the-press matter. 

And that has given rise to a worldwide movement of well-intentioned folk who nowadays constitute a public forum protesting against decisions of courts in several countries that Assange is, or is not, guilty of charges laid against him. Shipton is a leading figure in the activities of what has become something of a public industry.

I understand Shipton’s subdued wrath about the treatment that authorities are handing out to Assange. I sympathise with Assange’s fiancée Stella who has (presumably with the consent or connivance of authorities during prison visits) borne his two little boys. Those themes form a major component of the film. I feel anger about the treatment that Assange is still undergoing for having done something that apparently still waits for some legislature to turn into a crime.

But of Lawrence’s film, my feeling is that its punch might not have diminished by being shorter than 115 minutes (including a long credits sequence). And it’s no place for the words “happy ending”. Ithaka remains a destination craving to be reached. And with clarity, succinctly, this documentary explains why.

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