The Take (2004)

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.

Director:

Avi Lewis

Writer:

Naomi Klein

Stars:

Matilde Adorno, Michel Camadessus, Bill Clinton

1 win & 5 nominations.

Cast

Credited 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 (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)

Storyline

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - the take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head. Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale. With The Take, director Avi Lewis, one of Canada's most outspoken journalists, and writer Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller No Logo, champion a radical economic manifesto for the 21st century

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Plot Keywords:

worker | take | system | radical | manifesto | 

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Taglines:

Occupy. Resist. Produce.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Official Sites:

2-1-0 Films [Greece] Official site

Country:

Canada Argentina

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

18 March 2005 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Die Übernahme

Filming Locations:

Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina

Company Credits

Production Co:

Barna-Alper Productions, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Klein Lewis Productions

Technical Specs

Color:

Black and White (archive footage) Color

User Reviews

Eye-opening and Hopeful

This movie helps progressive people address one of the main criticisms of the right and capitalists: what would you do differently if capitalism and globalization is so bad?

Argentina was a country where public utilities had been sold off and money fled the country. Factories were left empty, owing millions of dollars in taxes to various levels of government. The workers thought: we don't have jobs, so we can't buy things for our families. There are no jobs, because people aren't buying things for their families. So they broke the cycle, and with government approval (eventually) occupied the factories and just started producing items for themselves and their neighbors. The co-operative/collectivist movement in Argentina flourished.

The movie shows it was far from easy, and there are many hurdles left to overcome for this country and its people. But it's a hopeful message that if you buy locally, use locally produced services and products produced "locally", you create a viable economic cycle that enriches everybody. You may not have $40 microwaves produced someplace else on the other side of the world, but instead you get a quality product produced by your neighbour, that doesn't require the expense and waste of trans-global shipment. Then, the makers of cheap microwaves will be forced to pay their workers more in order to create a local/national market for their products, rather than using slave labour and shipping the products overseas to the "first world".

Okay, I'm off my soap box. Well done movie with real emotion and appeal.