83. Push; movie review

PUSH
Cert 12A
92 mins
BBFC advice: Contains infrequent strong language

I sensed the monster before it arrived on screen.
The world is in such a mess that good honest people are being forced out of their big-city homes because their rents have been hiked up.
So, whose fault is it?? .... “Oh, no”, I gasped. “It is ours!”
Yes, I am one of those people who is only too pleased when my pension fund performs well and ask no questions about how it is achieved.
I see myself as being reasonably intelligent but it hadn't really occurred to me why the price of homes are skyrocketing worldwide while incomes have stagnated.
It turns out that pension funds are part of the problem.
Fredrik Gertten's documentary is a thorough analysis of why people are losing their homes and why landlords don't seem to care about them.
It also examines the phenomenon of empty city properties and why owners are unconcerned about not filling them.
The movie follows Leilani Farha, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing as she travels across the world trying to understand why people are being pushed out of cities.
She discovers that inner-city property is the new gold but, as she says: "Gold is not a human right, housing is."
Farha visits Sweden, Germany, Spain to see how the issue of properties being bought up by major companies is being handled.
She also finds out of one American company which has created a property empire in the wake of the 2008 financial crash.
And she puts the microscope on London and, in particular, Notting Hill which is the shadow of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
Indeed, the picture painted by Gertten's film indicates that Grenfell was a ghastly but inevitable fall-out of a greed-is-good culture.
Push was always going to appeal to us because I have been a news journalist for more than 30 years and Mrs W works in social housing.
However, it should also make you think if you own a second property, have a pension or even care for humanity.
Can we all make a difference?

Reasons to watch: A startling picture of money winning over humanity
Reasons to avoid: A little bit complex at times

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 8/10

Did you know? Properties in London worth £33.9bn are owned by foreign companies with more than 6,000 of these properties situated in Kensington and Chelsea.

The final word. Fredrik Gertten: "Leilani is more than an expert. She’s out in the field doing research trying to understand and see what’s going on. Most important of all is that Leilani’s search has a global level. If you want to understand housing, you need to zoom out from your national politics and zoom out to the global pattern. I think that’s what this film can bring to the table. "

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