Currently in production! Click here to watch the trailer.

Whether it’s the yellow vests in France, or anti-poll tax protesters in the UK, their common cause is to protest against taxes and social inequalities. Why is tax such an explosive issue? Our two-part film investigates, starting at the turn of WWI when modern tax was invented as a means of financing war. It was the beginning of the political and social history of the universal, progressive income tax in a number of countries.

WWI led Germany, France and the UK to set up redistributive taxation to finance their armies and create a “social” bond between their citizens. This new income tax helped build their modern welfare states (Eps 1) until a new ideology swapped solidarity for the mantra of productivity (Eps 2). The film comes to a close in present times, as new health imperatives force governments to reconsider the role and place of a fair fiscal system that is fit for a post-pandemic world.
Filmed in France, Germany & UK. Apart from historical archives, the story relies on a wide array of “involved characters” from all walks of life (activists, workers, tax experts, politicians, entrepreneurs, etc), framed by beautiful areal shooting for geographical context.

Estimated completion: Jan. 2022