Paris-based The Party Film Sales has closed a cluster of public broadcaster deals on the French documentary Tax Me (If You Can), directed by Thomas Lafarge, ahead of the film’s first airing. Spain’s RTVE, Switzerland’s RTS, Slovenia’s RTV and Finland’s YLE are all on board.
The timing is the story. The deals were unveiled on the eve of Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Le Havre (Sept. 7-10), and before the documentary even reaches audiences: it launches on Arte France’s streaming service arte.tv on Sept. 8, followed by the ARTE linear channel on Sept. 14.
Why pre-broadcast sales matter
In factual, most international deals follow the domestic premiere. Buyers wait to see ratings, press reaction and whether a title travels. Selling four European pubcasters before frame one has aired flips that sequence.
Estelle de Araujo, co-head of international sales at The Party Film Sales, called the speed “a very encouraging sign,” noting the pressure public broadcasters and their funding are currently under. She framed the quick acquisitions as an editorial and political signal as much as a commercial one — evidence that programmers see appetite for hard economic subject matter.
For anyone tracking the documentary market, that is the useful data point. Public broadcasters across Europe are squeezed on budget, which usually pushes them toward safe, proven acquisitions. A pre-sale wave on an investigative economics doc suggests the topic itself is doing the selling.
The film: a ‘man bites dog’ angle on wealth
Lafarge, 38, previously co-directed The World According to Amazon with Adrien Pinon and In the Murky Waters of BNP Paribas with Xavier Harel. The new film examines how the fortunes of the ultra-rich have climbed over the past two decades, setting Arthur Laffer’s trickle-down thesis against the growing “tax the rich” push led by French economist Gabriel Zucman and supported by a handful of millionaires including Abigail Disney.
Lafarge said the hook was the counterintuitive one. Rather than going to Oxfam or Attac, groups that have covered inequality for decades, he chased the wealthy people asking to be taxed more — quoting Chuck Collins in the film on the classic newsroom line about a man biting a dog.
Access came through Zucman’s team, who invited him to Washington for the G20. That trip, Lafarge said, turned out to be the launch point for an international billionaire-tax campaign now live in the French, U.K., Swedish and U.S. debates.
The hardest part, per the director, was getting rich subjects to speak: he argues the reluctance to discuss money is global, not specifically French, and that even pro-tax millionaires stay cautious because talking exposes them.
The packaging lesson
One detail worth noting for anyone selling factual content internationally: the title is being shopped in two configurations — a 52-minute feature or a two-part series of 45-minute episodes.
- Dual-format offers let a single title fit both a 60-minute linear doc slot and a two-episode streaming shelf.
- Topicality beats star power here; the subject is live policy debate in multiple markets at once.
- Streaming-first domestic launch — arte.tv on Sept. 8, channel on Sept. 14 — mirrors the pattern now standard among European pubcasters.
- Co-production stacking spreads risk: Little Big Story produced with Arte France, in association with Public Sénat, backed by the CNC, PROCIREP, Société des Producteurs, ANGOA and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region.
What’s next
De Araujo is targeting further deals at Le Havre from buyers who have already signalled interest, naming the Nordics, Japan, Portugal and Eastern Europe, plus territories beyond. Little Big Story’s earlier credits include Nicole Kidman, Eyes Wide Open and Welded Together; The Party Film Sales also handles Oscar-nominated The Voice of Hind Rajab and Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Congo Boy.
The read for acquisitions and planning teams: inequality and taxation are behaving like a genre right now, not a niche. Titles that arrive mid-news-cycle are clearing faster than the usual festival-to-market path would predict.
Source: Variety
