Expatriates from Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United States, namely Jeff Floro, Edwin Lee, Shwan Tse and Marcu Tsui, make up the creative team behind a short film featuring NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's time in Hong Kong. The film is titled Verax which was derived from Mr Snowden's codename he used when contacting journalists through encrypted chat services. The film has gotten more than 100,000 YouTube views since its launch on Tuesday, July 2.

The film was directed by all four expatriates, but it was only Mr Lee and Mr Tsui who wrote the screenplay for the film.

The creative team shared that the idea to make the film hit them two days after Edward Snowden revealed himself publicly. The four expatriates were all living in Hong Kong and they loved the city so much that they "loved the idea of having Snowden here (Hong Kong) and the media frenzy it created. We really wanted to make a film based on such real events, especially as it continues to develop."

According to the team, "We made this for fun and for the love of filmmaking. We had no commercial or political motives."

The team shared that as independent and amateur filmmakers in Hong Kong they were motivated by the excitement and curiosity "as to why Snowden chose to come to Hong Kong."

Essentially, the movie tackles the irony that while certain media outlets wanted to get their hands of Mr Snowden, he was experiencing Hong Kong. The film answered the dramatic question: how his presence would have affected different people, namely the CIA contingent based in HK who would be tasked to find Mr Snowden; the HK police who would be stuck in between the U.S. and China; and the journalists who want to make the scoop."

The team admitted that they "really knew little about him (Snowden). Although he is a central character, he is not the most important. It is more about the maelstrom of events surrounding him."

In an interview with CNN, Mr Lee said that the film was shot over four days, the script was written and half finished on the very day of shooting and actors playing the parts had no rehearsal time.

Mr Lee said that their inspiration for the film were the Bourne film series and director Michael Mann.

The creative admittedly took creative licenses as they inject imagined scenes such as a short talk between mainland Ministry of State security attaché and Hong Kong police, they were proud to share that they were able to shoot at the very same hotel that Mr Snowden stayed while he was in Hong Kong. Mr Lee shared that they have rented the room for HK$4,200.

The actor who was chosen to play the part of Mr Snowden bears a striking resemblance to Mr Snowden himself, especially after his hair was styled mimicking that of Mr Snowden. The team joked that the actor, indeed, can be mistaken as the fugitive and should be careful from then on.

What is noticeable in the film was that Mr Snowden, the central character of the film, has no dialogue.

Mr Lee explained, "Yes the film was about Snowden, but he wasn't featured the most prominently. He's mostly the catalyst of events affecting all these different people around him, it's more about the vignettes. We tried to goive Hong Kong the limelight we think it deserves."

Mr Lee also acknowledged that although they don't have a political agenda, they injected a subtext expressing a political critique in invoking the Ministry of State of Security attaché,

He explained that the scene involving the attaché and other officials was aimed to represent Hong Kong's relationship with China, "To say China wasn't pulling any strings at all would be naïve... Even though it gives us autonomy, it's always Beijing that calls the shots."

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