We steal secrets: a version of the story of WikiLeaks.

This political documentary, written and directed by Alex Gibney, takes us through the twisted story behind the revelation of American state secrets in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are introduced early in the film to the infamous Julian Assange, as a young idealistic radical supporter of free speech. He confessed in a broad Aussie accent how he likes 'crushing the bastards'. I was mesmerised by the story of how Bradley Manning, a lonely, cross-dressing military intelligence analyst, was betrayed to the CIA by the young bisexual, and emotionally aloof hacker Adrian Lamo. Julian's idealism about sharing the truth prompted him to create his controversial website as a safe way to share this enormous amount of secret material with the world. The film interviews an impressive array of high profile people who seem willing to speak honestly, but there is a real absence of any interview with Julian, so we are left a little uncertain of his view of the parody of events. It was reported in The Big Issue that he wanted $1million to appear, which suggests that he has moved to the other side - has power corrupted him, just like everybody he turned on? As the film gathers pace, the traditional media seem to spark the truth telling but then quickly turn on Bradley and Julian, as dangerous and deranged individuals. They are targetted as irresponsible wistleblowers while the inherent enormity of the truths revealed have been largely ignored by governments and media corporations. It is as if they are being punished for their ruthless presentation of the facts, and for not understanding or managing the consequences of this truth-telling. I walked out feeling very despondent about the way power corrupts individuals and how organisations attack the messangers when the message is one they don't want to know.