The Snowden Saga
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: July 09 , 2013 -

With each passing day, the odyssey of Edward Snowden, a former American technical contractor working in National Security Agency (NSA) as well as in Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), but now wanted by the United States on alleged charge of espionage for leaking documents unveiling the extent of its domestic and International surveillance programme, is looking a lot like a direct spin off from some Hollywood thrillers.

To the United States and its allies, which are trying to cope up with the discomfort that has been caused after the revelation, Snowden is a rogue spy on the run seeking asylum, but to Russia, China and others on the opposite side of the tilting balance for world supremacy, which are secretly gloating over the turn of the event, Snowden is definitely a hero, even if they would not admit it openly.

So, as Philip Noyce, the Hollywood director best known for his spy and thriller movies like ‘Salt’ and ‘Patriot Games’, and who has already envisioned ‘a suspenseful film’ on the NSA leaker even to the extent of finalizing casting of the actor to play Snowden, has pointed out, we have a perfect story and plot of a movie that is playing out before our eyes every day since the 30-year old whistleblower hits the news headlines around the world.

In fact, a group of amateur filmmakers in Hong Kong has beaten the calculative Hollywood moguls by coming out with a movie about Snowden, even though it is just short one of 5 minutes and 23 seconds.

Interestingly, even as Snowden, who is believed to be holed up in transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after arriving from Hong Kong on June 23 last, must be in a dilemma now to decide upon the exit route with three countries namely Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela offering him asylum, people have already started making comparison between the unfolding drama of the fugitive NSA leaker and that of The Terminal, the 2004 Spielberg directed comedy-drama film starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Incidentally, the film too has been inspired partially by the real life story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee, who spent 17 years living in Charles de Gaulle International Airport at Paris from 1988 to 2005 as he was denied entry into France and also could not go back to Iran.

However, apart from the setting of the movie, which happens to be an airport, we don’t see anything comparable as far as the subject matter is concerned.

There is also going to be nothing funny or comic about any film adaptation on the life of Snowden – the lone hero on the run, who eludes a spy-hunt across a globe-trotting storyboard as he strives to expose wrongdoing at the heart of Washington's vengeful intelligence apparatus.

Last but not the least; it would be too mean to reduce the stand taken by the young gutsy man, who has thankfully managed to put a brake on the United States from becoming the bully-surveillance State that it always wanted to be, as some filmy stuff to be seen and heard in the dark rooms of cinema houses, however entertainment-starving we might be, in this sordid world. Period.