The Take (2004)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Avi Lewis

Writer:

Naomi Klein (writer)

Release Date:

18 March 2005 (Italy)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

Occupy. Resist. Produce.

Plot:

The film in not about auto-parts workers in suburban Buenos Aires, but about workers of a ceramic floors factory in Neuquen, several hundred miles southward, in Argentinian Patagonia.

Plot Keywords:

Worker | Take | Globalization | Democracy | Canada

Awards:

1 win & 5 nominations

Cast

Matilde Adorno	...	Herself - Worker
Michel Camadessus	...	Himself
Bill Clinton	...	Himself (archive footage)
Gustavo Cordera	...	Himself (singer) (as Bersuit)
Freddy Espinoza	...	Himself (president of La Forja)
Raul Godoy	...	Himself
Néstor Kirchner	...	Himself
Naomi Klein	...	Herself (also narrator)
Avi Lewis	...	Himself (also narrator)
Celia Martinez	...	Herself
Carlos Saúl Menem	...	Himself (also archive footage) (as Carlos Menem)
Lalo Paret	...	Himself (activist)
Juan Domingo Perón	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jorge Rimondi	...	Himself (Judge)
Anoop Singh	...	Himself (Director of the IMF's Western Hemisphere Department)
Luis Zamara	...	Himself
Luis Zanón	...	Himself

Runtime:

Canada:87 min

Country:

Canada | Argentina

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) | Color

Certification:

Spain:13 | Singapore:NC-16 | USA:Unrated | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Company:

Barna-Alper Productions

If it were that easy ...

This movie claims, that the situation it presents the viewers with could occur anywhere in the world and that the takeover of closed factories by their workers is a recipe against the negative effect of world wide globalization.

The first assertion is clearly wrong. Argentina is a specific place with a specific history. Its industry was created to serve the home market. Peron's and later the Peronist's power base were the industrial workers whose unions were brought into line with strong arm tactics. Industry has always been a highly politicized affair in that country, it was protected from international competition for a very long time. Therefore nobody invested in the renewal of machinery, in the 1980s they still produced the Ford Falcon model of the 1950s (maybe they still do?). Pepole could always be sure that the export of agricultural produce would support an industry which was neither very productive nor competitive. I think oil producing Venezuela and Iran are in a similar position today (in the way politics, economics and ideologies are mixed together). President Menem – incidentally a Peronist brought to power as the champion of the little man – lifted the protective shield and brought to light the frailty of the legal as well as the economical and social system of Argentina. No wonder many businesses collapsed, leaving huge debts behind.

It defies belief that the adversaries of globalization just think that by putting the lid back on, returning to a protected market, everything will be well. This would neither create fairer conditions nor would it secure more equality or welfare for the future.

For the second assertion the movie surprises with a disconcerting lack of proof. Very little is explained. How do these enterprises pay for raw materials? Where are their markets? How do they find customers? Do they make a profit? Most of these questions are not even addressed although they are essential if the „model" should work. And as much as one can understand the outrage of seeing people willing to work being forced from their place of employment, there are some legal issues which should have been considered. If I understood it right, the workers took the bankrupt factories lock, stock and barrel, leaving the accumulated debts – to who? Mustn't there be some losers around somewhere? Isn't this part of the time-honed Argentine tradition of eating the cake before having it? I regret to say that I found this movie overly romantic and simplistic. It fails to deliver what it promises to do at the outset.