CEO em Fuga: A História de Carlos Ghosn

This is the oddest fugitive story that's deserved a documentary I've ever watched. Not a total waste of time, but certainly not the best time spent.

Most of it was about Renault and Nissan. Better to say, Renault and Japan.

There was literally 2 lines, maybe three, about his family (wife or wives and children) - and how they were affected. We don't know how he's been since he became a fugitive.

It was 95% of what he did before the kerfuffle and then BOOM! He was a fugitive. The End.

I won't remember him or his story for ever long which is too bad. It could be an excellent example of the problems on so many levels of so many things!!

Would I watch it again knowing what I know now?

Probably not. Except he really does look like Mr. Bean and that part was fun. (I know that you might not think that is nice, but Mr. Bean is well-loved my millions, soooo.)

The movie is clearly one sided against Carlos Ghosn. The Japanese executives conveniently try to shift the blame on Carlos for their lack of oversight and incompetence. There is no excuse for being complacent. You were paid to do your job, you can't claim ignorance later when you sighed on a document allowing the things you blame somebody of your embezzlement later. All the executives should have been arrested for the same reason Carlos went to jail for. I am glad he escaped the way he did. People like Ghosn are rare and undoubtedly brilliant. I think he deserved every penny he made. He turned around a loss making company into a profitable one and they have the nerve to blame him for anting a piece of the pie.

Fugitive: The Curious Case of Carlos Ghosn" is an investigative feature-length documentary directed by Lucy Blakstad in 2022. It follows the rise and fall of Carlos Ghosn, a businessman in the car industry straddling 2 cultures. The film tracks the rise of Ghosn, a General Manager at French car manufacturer Renault in the late 90's as he takes control of Nissan in Japan and begins to take a firm grip over both companies. But when his business practices came into question, he was jailed in Japan while the scrutiny of his business practices raged in his absence. Whilst on parole, he and his associates plot to get him out of Japan, and intrigue ensues.

This film is an interesting deep dive into one of the more intriguing cases in modern times of a business leader who, once the golden child, had a phenomenal fall from grace. While online pundits applaud and worship and applaud Elon Musk and other car industry leaders as untouchable bastions of commercial enterprise, this film paints a more realistic picture of the life of a corporate leader who flew a little too close to the sun.

Want to read more, google - perspective documentary reviews.

It is an extraordinary story. A CEO who has been arrested and charged but not yet convicted of embezzlement, smuggles himself out of Japan, via a corporate jet, by hiding in a big box. Its stuff out of a novel.

It is a well-made documentary but given most documentaries made today are pretty good anyway, to be exceptional it needs to give the viewer as many facts and let them decide on the conclusions. The problem with this film is that I found it wanting in facts.

We are told the rot set in when Ghosn was informed of 3 employees at Renault who leaked trade secrets on electric cars to the Chinese. So, Ghosn sacked them. Only then it was divulged the 3 employees were innocent and the whole thing was made up. People were questioning Ghosn's integrity. The way I saw it - who was the dude who made up the lies? Why was not the investigation about the source of the lie? Was Ghosn part of the conspiracy? Where was the evidence to support this if that was the case? The documentary had fewer answers than we needed. It was all up in the air with all the wrong question asked.

Ghosn than got in hot water because of his high salary (and a very lavish party he threw), but again, did he break the law? It may not be ethical but what he was doing was not illegal. So jealously plays a large part in his downfall. Ofcourse, the people seeing green could not get over the fact they were still in a job because of Ghosn, not inspite of him. This was the man who turned around a huge loss-making company into a profitable one. The fact he did it twice, for Renault and Nissan, says a lot about Ghosn business prowess and intelligence. Then again, given we are talking about the French and Japanese psyche, that could go in some way to explain why he was hated. Being of Arab origin, he just wasn't one of "us". To its credit the documentary address this.

The biggest issue I had was the lack of evidence presented about Ghosn's presumed embezzlement or possible tax avoidance. No facts were supplied. We were just told the Renault business set up numerous subsidiary companies, but we are also told other car manufactures do the same, so I am not sure why this was a big deal then? It was through these subsidiaries that Ghosn accumulated wealth, but no details were supplied on how the alleged embezzlement operated, how much was siphoned and who else was implicated?

I came away knowing less about Ghosn's charges than I did going into it. The documentary slants on the side of presumed innocence which given the absolute lack of evidence against the man, is the only position to take.

The only fact I came away with is the 99% conviction rate of people arrested in Japan and that goes to explain why Ghosn fled.

It is a good documentary that introduces new parts of Carlos Ghosn's life we didn't know about.

A genuis Lebanese who made his way up to two of the most successful automotive companies in the world.

However, it lacked lots and lots of facts and details that would make the story more thrilling.

So many unanswered questions and missing parts of the puzzle. I think the writers and producers should have digged deeper and maybe made it as a small series instead of documentary and provided the viewers with additonal information on many incidents mentioned lightly in the documentary such as the renauld employees sacking.

But overall, it is nice to watch.