A spokesperson for the Kremlin has urged people to see Oliver Stone’s new biopic about Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who has been living in exile in Russia since 2013.

Dmitry Peskov said the film, titled Snowden, which opens in Russia and the US this week, and in the UK in October, should be required viewing for anyone interested in learning the truth about the man who leaked intelligence information with the help of various news organisations, including the Guardian.

“[It has] a brilliant script,” said Peskov, “and, what is most important, it is nearly a documentary,” he said. “This is an excellent opportunity for everyone to learn what actually happened. It’s a must-see.”



Quoted by Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Peskov – who has been press secretary for Vladimir Putin since 2012 – added that he thought the film was “top quality”. The version that is being released in Russia is four minutes longer than the one available in the US, although it is unclear what is included in the extra footage.

Snowden, which features a cameo from the real-life Snowden in the closing scenes, stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead role, with Shailene Woodley as his girlfriend and Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto and Tom Wilkinson as the journalists to whom he told his story.

It premiered at the Toronto film festival last weekend, where it was met with mixed reviews. The New York Times’s AO Scott called it “an honourable and absorbing contribution to the imaginative record of our confusing times”, while the Guardian’s Benjamin Lee argued that “virtually every directorial choice is aimed at making Snowden’s life seem more conventional and it results in the majority of scenes feeling like a lifeless construct”.

The script for Snowden was adapted by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald from a book by Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, and another by Guardian journalist Luke Harding.