Last year, DreamWorks’ Benedict Cumberbatch-led film about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange created a conversation about hacking in Toronto (even if the movie wasn’t all that well received).
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This year, “Who Am I — No System Is Safe” looks to continue the topical theme.
The German film, directed by Baran Bo Odar (“The Silence”) features “A Coffee in Berlin” breakout star Tom Schilling as a young hacker who gets caught up with a hacktivist collective bent on causing trouble for the powers that be. (Their name, Clowns Laughing @ You, does not make that clear enough.)
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The thriller is produced by Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann, who produced “The Lives of Others,” which won the 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Check out the trailer above, and the synopsis below:
Benjamin (Tom Schilling) is a nobody, an outsider. This changes when he meets the charismatic Max (Elyas M’Barek). The two of them couldn’t be more different, but they share one mutual interest: hacking. Together with Max’s friends, impulsive Stephan (Wotan Wilke Möhring) and paranoid Paul (Antoine Monot) they form the subversive hacker group CLAY (Clowns Laughing @ You) . CLAY provokes with hilarious hacks and has the finger on the pulse of a whole generation. For the first time in his life Benjamin feels like he belongs and even attractive Marie (Hannah Herzsprung) starts to notice him. What started out as fun soon turns deadly serious, when Benjamin and CLAY are suddenly investigated by German Secret Service and Europol. With Hanne Lindberg (Trine Dyrholm), the leading Europol cybercrime investigator, at their heels, Benjamin starts to realize that he is no longer a nobody, but one of the most wanted hackers of the world.