150. The Panama Papers; movie review
Cert TBA
96 mins
BBFC advice: TBA
Before we begin, let's get one point clear - David Cameron did not resign as British Prime Minister because of his involvement in the Panama Papers.
And, no, they didn't have anything to do with Brexit either.
Alex Winter's compelling documentary does itself a disservice by making such claims when it really doesn't need to.
But, because of my knowledge of British politics and the wideness of the film's assumptions about it, I was left wondering how accurate its other claims were.
That said, there is no doubt that the investigation into the Panama Papers was one of the most impressive pieces of journalism this century.
Winter's film chronicles how teams of reporters worked together after 11.5 million leaked documents were leaked to a German newspaper in 2015.
The paper's executives had the foresight of collaborating with organisations across the world to increase the potency and scale of the information before it published.
The documents were created by, and taken from a Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca and included the names of world leaders, celebrities and many more.
Winter's movie chronicles the timeline from 'John Doe' making this huge amount of data available through to resignations and jailings of many of those involved.
One of the most remarkable aspects was the number of journalists recruited to the inquiry and how they managed to keep their findings secret until an agreed publication date.
This is explained in fine detail which was fascinating to a former editor but a little less interesting to Mrs W.
Anyway, it prompts me to flag-wave for the freedom of the fourth estate which has been under huge pressure because of the demise of newspapers and the rantings of world leaders such as Donald Trump.
The public needs to understand that it is entirely in the interests of the powerful to make the media appear like the bad guys.
As The Panama Papers have shown, without their persistence and bravery (yes, journalists died covering this story), I am now convinced many corrupt leaders would still be in office, albeit that doesn't apply to David Cameron..
Reasons to avoid: Quite heavy on the detail
Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 7.5/10
Did you know? The whistleblower first greeted reporters with “Hello, this is John Doe.” They have since then requested to remain completely anonymous and only communicated through encrypted files.
The final word. Alex Winter: "From the beginning, I was well aware that the initial newsbreak of the leak was only the very beginning of a story that would remain active for several years at least. So high security was essential in order to protect my sources, my crew and the ability to complete the film without being obstructed. That required a similar workflow to my prior feature Deep Web: fully encrypted media, encrypted communications, and a press blackout until we were completely done." Filmmaker magazine
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