The Panama Papers

If you don't know much about the controversy, this is a decent movie. If you do, you won't learn much new. The film is usually shot well, although the intentional camera movement in confessionals was jarring. Very much a "puff piece" for journalists that gets a bit heavy-handed at times. There are some really great parts with in-depth information... then there will be another random journo bragging about something they did (or their amazing colleagues), and nothing detailed involving the papers themselves. There are limited interviews with actual political figures, prosecutors, or tax experts. I'd be more interested in the people who programmed the system used to analyze the leaked data, or an expose on Mossack's history and clientele.

Beware of the highly positive professional critic reviews on this one, as the angle of this film is particularly palatable to your average professional film critic who works for a journalistic publication.

Would benefit from clearer direction - is this primarily about the journalistic journey or what was revealed.? At no point does the documentary explore what PP tells us about illegal tax evasion (who does it, why) and currently legal tax avoidance.

I'm not sure we need to spend much time asking why illegal tax evasion is a bad thing. But equipping viewers to not just get angry but understand how legal tax shelters work, seems pretty important.

Whilst watching, I thought about the documentary "Inside Job" about the global financial crisis and what a great example that was of getting the inside scoop on the causes of the crisis. And, educating the viewer on complex financial mechanisms, sufficient to empower the viewer to understand this was no accident but gross recklessness and criminal behaviour.

I'm glad Panama Papers was made but I'm not sure it equips viewers to challenge their governments' complacency on this

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.

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.

I applaude the documentarians for this excellent depiction of the investigative reporting of the John Doe whistleblower. I only wish it had more of an impact on the American political system and wallstreet billionares. Instrumental in understanding the wealth gap and its causes and ramifications on society.