The Panama Papers

I enjoyed "The Panama Papers," mainly for its focus on the investigative journalists worldwide who collaboratively, painstakingly researched the massive story. This documentary unravels the complex financial shenanigans secretly managed by a shadowy Panama law firm, but also explains to viewers why all this matters so much-in terms you can understand and put into context even if you know nothing about finance, tax laws or banking. I did sense the filmmakers' strong political agenda, but that didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the film. It's educational and diverting.

Saw this at IDFA 2018, the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam. The movie makes abundantly clear that corruption in the broadest sense of the word, is not confined to countries far away. Politicians in Europe and USA, as well as "fellow" citizens with more money than they can spend in a life time, go at any length to hide their assets. They do that mainly for tax evasion purposes. That observation is extra painful, given that richness and poverty are very unevenly distributed. By refusing to pay their fair share of taxes, they also avoid contributing to the solution of these problems.

This movie presents a very relevant overview of the situation as it is nowadays. However, as a movie it has its problems, because it is a difficult story to find appropriate visuals with. Talking heads are inevitable around topics like this, but what can be shown in the background, next to what they tell us?? The subjects are relevant, so that is not the issue here. But showing documents in passing, thereby highlighting text fragments and signatures, totally out of context, does not work for me. This form of presentation is not attractive in any way.

There are relevant remarks about the risks for the journalists involved. Ditto for the whistle blowers who provide the ground work for the published articles. The movie mentions some earlier whistle blowers, Manning and Snowden, despite having played their role in a very different context. Their names are explicitly mentioned here, if only to emphasize that their lives drastically changed after they went public. We know what happened to these two, which might work as a deterrent for followers in their footsteps. And the one journalist involved in the Panama papers, who lately became the victim of a car bomb, is also a frightening perspective. Their adversaries are powerful, their pockets are deep enough to pay any straw man, or assembling an army of sollicitors, and thus can easily get away with it.

All in all, despite some minor limitations in presenting the dry subject at hand, due to a lack of appealing visuals, the underlying issues are relevant enough to accept the lack of vividness as a fact of life, given the nature of the material.

If you followed the case when this blew up, this movie will not add much. Of course, there are some things I didn't know, but if you wanted more in-depth information about the scandal this movie will not help you. Kind of boring also.

The Panama Papers is an exposé of the financial underworld and named much like "The Pentagon Papers" exposé of 1971. It's a mostly interesting account of the lengths the super rich will go to hide their wealth - many times illegally acquired - from taxing authorities. And these are not your banana republic dictators but First World leaders, celebrities, and sports figures. However, the account dwells a lot on the investigative efforts of journalists worldwide and the risks to them, and though that's of some interest, it seems to be more the focus of the film. I wasn't quite satisfied with this approach, nor the way it concluded. Sure, many govt leaders were forced to resign but why not prosecuted/jailed? The film could've delved into that, too, but didn't.

Yet another leak, yet another example of how the richest pillage the populace and the system. The existence of offshore companies and corporations as means to avoid taxes isn't really unheard of. Thieves and crooks exist everywhere and whenever something is exploitable someone will take advantage. What really makes the Panama Papers leak important, though, is the scale of it and the high profile people that it exposed. This documentary narrates the chain of events that brought the existence of widespread tax evasion and tax havens to light. From the first contact with the whistleblower, to the journalistic effort, to end with some important consequences such as major political convictions and deadly developments for some of the journalists involved. Overall it is an interesting view on something that should definitely be remembered more, even after years have passed. Given the state of affairs, in fact, one would say that most of it seems to have been forgotten or at least moved to the background. These people rob the least fortunate of infrastructures and possibilities, and the average citizen doesn't seem to care or possibly doesn't even know. The focus is primarily on the investigative side of the events. Interviews with members of the ICIJ and the main journalists that brought forth the initial leak, account for most of the running time. It is definitely intriguing learning how such a grand journalistic endeavor is conducted. However, it would have been interesting to know more about the actual content of the documents leaked aside from the basic explanations given and the most illustrious convictions shown. Definitely something worth watching and knowing.