Ben Lewis

Documentary film has long been a powerful means of drawing attention to abuses of power. The new film by Ben Lewis, Falciani’s Tax Bomb, will be continuing this tradition on the German television channel Arte this June.

In the midst of the global tremors of the 2007 financial crisis, for those at HSBC it must have seemed that their part to play was going to go unnoticed. However, in late 2008 documents were leaked that exposed a long list of illegal activities including HSBC’s assistance in withholding $204.5 billion in assets from international tax authorities.

We are increasingly reliant on whistle-blowers for exposing abuses of power, and Ben’s documentary takes the audience deep into the HSBC scandal and its key players. In a similar fashion to the highly acclaimed documentary Citizenfour, Falciani’s Tax Bomb tells the story of the “Snowden of the financial world”, Herve Falciani.

To see Falciani’s Tax Bomb, you can catch its television début on Arte on the following dates:

• Tuesday, June 23 at 20:15
• Friday, 26 June at 20:55
• Tuesday, 30 June at 20:55