2013. American documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras receives a series of emails signed by the mysterious CITIZENFOUR, who claims to have secret NSA documents proving that the US government has been illegally collecting private information from its citizens since 9/11. Behind this pseudonym hides Edward Snowden, a whistleblower with startling revelations, whom she begins filming as the world discovers his identity.

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Almost two years after the firestorm that raged through media and politics, the mysterious Snowden opens himself up to the world: first in this documentary by Laura Poitras, which won the Best Documentary Oscar in 2015, and then in the Hollywood biopic by Oliver Stone starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt which will of course be released just in time to qualify for a 2016 Oscar. Citizenfour won’t make it easy for the audience to understand Snowden: there is so much information to get through and the director has decided not to meddle. The camera is therefore fixed on Snowden, who presents himself as simply providing the facts. But Poitras is less interested in the political impact than in the man behind the myth, disappointing those hoping to get a clear analysis of the repercussion of the affair. Instead they get a surprisingly sober and intimate portrait of Snowden.