Tax Wars
90 min and 52 min | Hege Dehli, Xavier Harel et Lamia Oualalou | 2024 (in production)
In coproduction with Mechanix Film and ARTE G.E.I.E.
In association with Norwegian Film Institute, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Arts Coucnil Norway - The Audio and Visual Fund, Viken Filmsenter, The Finance Market Fund, Fritt Ord Foundation and Fredrikstad commune
With the participation of Asharq Documentary Channel, NRK, Radio Canada, RTBF, RTS - Radio Télévision Suisse and YLE
Co-financed by EUROPE CREATIVE MEDIA, with the support of the CNC
International sales: JAVA FILMS
In the past 40 years, multinational corporations have shaken up the global economy. They have become immensely wealthy, earning over $3 trillion in profits each year. Yet, they pay hardly any taxes. Strangely, governments seem powerless in the face of tax evasion, which deprives them of hundreds of billions in revenue, while they lack the means to reduce inequality, fight poverty and address the climate crisis.
Finding funds for a fairer and more sustainable society is possible: it simply requires ending multinational tax evasion. This is the preoccupation of a handful of NGOs and international experts gathered within the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT), whose names include Joseph Stiglitz, Thomas Piketty, Gabriel Zucman, Jayati Ghosh, Eva Joly and Magdalena Sepúlveda.
Their goal? To finally make multinational corporations pay their fair share of taxes. After six years, they succeed in having their proposals, long dismissed as utopian, form the backbone of a historic agreement adopted in October 2021 by 136 countries. This measure is expected to generate $220 billion for governments and challenge the economic model of tax havens. It's the first change in a century, and the status quo of tax evasion has been disrupted.
Combining filming on four continents and futuristic animations inspired by the Star Wars universe, Tax Wars tells the story of how the ideas of these activists have gradually succeeded and turned public opinion against the most powerful actors in the global economy, in order to end the heist of the century.