Ithaca | A father. A family. A fight for justice.

Organisers: Fritz Bauer Forum, Amnesty International Bochum, DFG-VK Bochum/Herne, Friedensplenum Bochum, VVN-BdA Bochum, endstation.kino im Bahnhof Langendreer, Aktionsbündnis Free Assange

Language: German subtitles, film discussion in English

The documentary film shows how far the richest and most powerful nations in the history of the world go to hide their crimes. It gets to the heart of how press freedom and investigative journalism are being dismantled before our eyes.

Ithaka is about the fight for Julian Assange, a man who founded the organisation WikiLeaks with his idea of justice to provide a safe platform for whistleblowers to expose the crimes of governments. The information published by WikiLeaks has brought countless abuses to light, including war crimes, corruption and environmental scandals. Julian Assange has been celebrated and showered with awards for this revolutionary journalistic work, but it is precisely this journalism for which the USA is demanding his extradition.

As Julian Assange faces a 175-year prison sentence if extradited to the US, his family members are faced with the prospect of losing him forever to the abyss of the US justice system. This battle between David and Goliath is a personal one – and with Julian’s health steadily deteriorating in London’s maximum security prison, the clock is ticking.

In a very impressive and sensitive way, this film portrays a tireless father in his international fight for his son’s life and a wife fighting for the father of her children. We must not look away, because this dangerous precedent affects us all.
Producer Adrian Devant is the brother of Stella Morris, the wife of Julian Assange.