How do you go from being one of the most revered CEOs of the car industry to being jailed in Japan, escape in a box and end up a fugitive with an international arrest warrant?This story is told by Ghosn's closest collaborators and relatives. Success, hubris, paranoia, and the dark secrets behind his rise and fall. A tale of our times. How do you go from being one of the most...

Filmed, fly on the wall style, fighting, talking, laughing, being attacked by suicide bombs and sniper fire. We were with them until Raqqa was freed. And then followed them back home. Changed forever. They are from all nationalities. They dwell in the mythology of the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War. They chose to give up their comfortable lives and go fight ISIS in Syria....

THE WORLD’S MOST WANTED ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMINALS  They are killing our planet.  They are wanted for poaching, industrial pollution, carbon scams, trade of protected species, illegal fishing, prohibited logging or ivory trafficking etc.  Police officers, judges, prosecutors, international intelligence agencies, Interpol, the EPA, whole countries even are hunting them down....

Taiwan is one of the most advanced democracies in the world. It’s also one of the most threatened. Despite being one of the world’s leading economies, having its own president, government, flag and anthem, no country recognises it. The problem is that China has always considered Taiwan to be one of its own provinces. Even today, President Xi Jinping does not rule out using...

The decision not extradite Julian Assange to the United States is unlikely to be the end of his long struggle. For the past 10 years, Premiere Lignes has investigated Assange and the WikiLeaks network. For the past 10 years, Premiere Lignes has investigated Assange and the WikiLeaks network. In their first film in 2011, they interviewed Julian Assange and his team and profiled these new...

Every year, 500,000 Europeans are meet a premature fate due to air pollution. One of the main causes of this pollution is coal - a fuel that is still used in many European countries. And this air pollution has no borders - it spreads its contamination throughout the continent, where citizens fight every day for their basic right to breathable air. Many doctors have raised the alarm, but...

Creating a dress for ten euros in Europe, in less than a fortnight. It’s not only possible, but it’s becoming the norm. Since the fashion industry went down the path of fast-fashion, it’s always both faster and cheaper – no matter the consequences.  Let’s start with those suffering the most: the workers. They work between 12 and 15 hours a day for salaries less than half the...

From his window he saw the horror. From his window, he filmed the terror. Daniel Psenny, journalist at Le Monde newspaper since 25 years, witnessed the bloodiest terrorist attack in our contemporary history, that of November 13, 2015 at the Bataclan. With his cell phone, Daniel, who lives a few meters from the famous Parisian concert hall, recorded a document, the only film that exists on...

Big pharma is big business. Richer and more powerful than ever, Big Pharma has influence at the heart of the economy and politics. This film investigates the lobbying practices of the lucrative pharmaceutical industry which can alone decide on government health policies, possibly to the detriment of our health. This global and complex survey collects testimonies from patient suffering from the...

Our plate is our most powerful weapon in fighting global warming and in protecting our planet.   Today, our diets play a major role in the threats weighing on our planet. But alas, there is hope. Investigative journalist Benoît Bringer sets off on a global search for women and men who are inventing a new dietary model — one which respects both humankind and nature.   This...

In 2001, the lucrative chocolate industry, due to pressure from NGOs, committed itself to putting an end to child labour in cacao plantations before 2006. 18 years later, has that promise been kept? The Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cacao producer, made a real effort to eradicate this scourge on the country. They built schools and trained farmers. Television adverts even reminded populations...

Sixty years of producing standardized fruit and vegetables and creating industrial hybrids have had a dramatic impact on their nutritional content. In the past 50 years, vegetables have lost 27% of their vitamin C and nearly half of their iron. Take the tomato. Through multiple hybridizations, scientists are constantly producing redder, smoother, firmer fruit. But in the process, it has lost a...

Phosphate fertilizers are essential to modern agriculture, especially for growing potatoes, one of the the favorites vegetables of Europeans. In Morocco, the country with the largest phosphate reserves, residents complain about the impacts of fertilizer production on their environment and their health. But they lack scientific data. A team of journalists, in collaboration with European...

In Niger, near a huge uranium mine, some residents live in areas that exceed the radioactivity of the Chernobyl Prohibited Zone. In the meantime, in France, citizens denounce the pollution of the largest uranium conversion plant in Europe. Despite the bans, a team of journalists, with the help of scientists, investigate in the two countries and take dozens of samples to learn more about the...

Green Warriors, a series of scientific investigative documentaries. Citarum river, Indonesia.  It’s the world’s most polluted river. A reporter teams up with international scientists to investigate the causes and consequences of this pollution. One of the main polluters is actually hidden in our closets : the fashion industry. 500 textile factories throw away their wastewater...

Green Warriors, a series of scientific investigative documentaries. Johannesburg is considered the most uranium-contaminated city in the world. Waste dumps from around 600 abandoned mines sit next to residential communities, blowing polluted dust into homes and contaminating the soil and water supplies. To get a sense of the sheer extent of the problem, Martin Boudot and his team of...

Why would someone confess to a crime they didn’t commit? In America, nearly 30% of those exonerated by DNA tests had previously confessed. For more than half a century, the Reid technique was the favored method of extracting confessions out of suspects. This method of slowly building pressure often made it seem that admitting guilt was the easiest way out. But now, a number of police forces...

With their beautiful shopfronts and finely crafted goods, brands like Gucci, Max Mara, Louis Vuitton and Prada are seen as being the height of luxury, conjuring images of master craftsmen finely crafting each item. But - as this investigation reveals - behind the glamorous exterior, all that glitters is not gold. In the world of luxury goods, leather means record-breaking profits. For brands...

Every second, another ten tons of plastic is produced. 10% of all plastic produced ends up in the oceans, leading to predictions that, by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea. Faced with this global scourge, more and more businesses are promising to recycle, including the Coca-Cola Company, a group that sells 4000 plastic bottles around the world every second. Can we depend...

One company has achieved an amazing tour de force: turn coffee, the most mundane soft-drink, into a magical potion. A beverage sold a fortune that changes you into a sophisticated human being. That gives you the illusion that you make a difference. And let you believe that you are – for a moment – above others. This company is Starbucks. One American entrepreneur has understood how high a...

Green Warriors, a series of scientific investigative documentaries. Johannesburg is considered the most uranium-contaminated city in the world. Waste dumps from around 600 abandoned mines sit next to residential communities, blowing polluted dust into homes and contaminating the soil and water supplies. To get a sense of the sheer extent of the problem, Martin Boudot and his team of...

  Acclaimed journalist Paul Moreira investigates how Russia manipulates public opinion, undermines democratic governments and attempts to alter world events. The public face of foreign policy: the state news channels, Sputnik and Russia Today. But working in the shadows is the hidden part: the hackers and trolls pushing the Russian agenda… The Russians know that public perception...

This is the story of a personal and universal quest : is it still possible to eat animals respecting their well-being, the planet and our health? While becoming a father for the first time, the investigative journalist Benoît Bringer (Pulitzer Prize with the Panama Papers’ team) questions what we give our children to eat. To feed a growing population, the world has embarked on a race to...

Children as young as three are becoming addicted to mobile phones, harming their development and causing possible long-term damage. We follow some of the youngest cases and hear how our brains are affected by exposure to screens. We also learn how platforms like snapchat or facebook are engineered to make them hyper-addictive. Three year old Ryan doesn’t speak, avoids eye contact and...

It’s the soft, natural fabric associated with high quality and versatility. Used to make everything from jeans and t-shirts to tarpaulins, oil and cattle feed, it powers a 37 billion euros a year industry. But is cotton really as pure as it seems? Claims of forced labour, pollution, and even slavery have stained its wholesome reputation, creating a market for ’ethical, responsible’...

An 8 month long international investigation exposed the Paradise Papers. With 13.5 million documents, it’s the biggest leak in history. The majority come from one of the biggest names in the offshore world: the Bermuda-based Appleby law firm. Along with 400 journalists from around the world, we dissected the packages prepared for Appleby’s clients, who are either wealthy individuals...

VIDEO TEASER IN ENGLISH - Elise Lucet from France 2 and Laurent Richard from Premières Lignes are being sued by the country of Azerbaidjan for defamation in a French Court for describing the oil-rich state as a "dictatorship". This trial in France could set an important precedent for foreing governments exporting their censorship beyond their borders, to curb freedom of the press.   See...

Secret internal documents reveal how Church officials protect priests accused of pedophilia by moving them from country to country, sometimes as far away as Africa. They call it ‘the geographical solution’. Even Pope Francis is implicated. When he was bishop of Buenos Aires, he tried to influence the Argentinean justice system in order to protect a convicted priest. From Cameroon to...

When 15 – 30% of the timber sold worldwide is thought to be illegal, how sustainable is the wood used in Ikea’s products? The company claims it only uses responsibly-sourced materials but - as this investigation reveals - some of their sub-contractors are pillaging Romania’s ancient forests. In Indonesia, APP plantations have caused widespread pollution. This investigation, filmed in...

Truth has a cost. Pressure, blackmail, loneliness, this investigation that looks like a psychological thriller reveals what it costs to expose an international scandal. This is the story of Raphael Halet along with another man, Antoine Deltour, an ordinary French citizen who leaked ultra confidential documents to investigative reporter Edouard Perrin. The International Consortium of Investigative...

Alice, Kenton, Bucky, and Rachna are the hidden victims of the chemical industry. They grew up in India or the US, in towns built around plastic and pesticide factories. Chemical giants Dow Chemical and Dupont not only finance local stadiums, schools and museums, but they have also been supporting the inhabitants of these towns for decades.  Offering an excellent wage and a comfortable...

In France, the agrifood industry reaps a dizzying profit of 170 billion euros per year. This sector is exceedingly powerful; strong in both its networks and influence. But how come ham is pink? Why do we believe that it is good for our children? Why are product labels beyond understanding? From Brittany to Denmark, through California and Wisconsin, film director Sandrine Rigaud conducts a...

An exclusive and chilling investigation into the origins of the Islamic terrorist group and its bloody rise, fuelled by army abuses. On April 14th 2014 over 250 schoolgirls were abducted by the Boko Haram group in Chibok in northern Nigeria. This outrageous act heralded the birth in international media of an Islamic sect which had been in existence for over ten years in the region. Soon after...

After Swissleak sand Luxleaks scandals, Premieres Lignes is an ICIJ partner in Panama Papers investigation. This is the biggest leak in history: 11.5 million files exposing the most secret world of offshore finance. Shell companies hiding the assets of political leaders, businessmen, celebrities, sports stars and even criminals. All resort to tax avoidance schemes depriving national treasuries...

There is a battle parents can not win even if they want to protect their children. A pollution that you can not see, that you can not feel but which the children are exposed to. Some dangerous particles, hidden in our food and in our water. Some invisible molecules in our furnitures or in the dust of our homes. Children can be exposed up to 128 chemical residues a day. Some of these products...

Amos Pictures in association with Premières Lignes for HBO, BBC and France 2 Watch the TRAILER In January 2015, the attacks that occurred in Paris against satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery store shook France and the whole world. A year on, with unprecedented access to the French authorities and previously unseen footage, director Dan Reed reveals the untold story of...

A powerfull investigative documentary on the social and political crisis in South Africa, following the paths of five young people belonging to the post-Apartheid generation, who hope to bring multiple changes to their country. What has become of Nelson Mandela’s dream of a democratic and multi-racial South Africa? Shortly after Madiba's death in December, 2013, Stephanie Lamorré portrays...

A mobile phone is sold every 57 seconds meaning that there are now more mobile phones on the planet than toothbrushes. We investigated the shameful secrets of the multinationals who produce our mobile phones. They are the big winners of the mobile revolution as their profits explode but what is the human and environmental cost in the production countries of China and Congo? We bring exclusive...

Paris, November 6, 2014 French tv journalist from Premières Lignes productions Edouard Perrin broadcast his first investigative program on the Luxembourg Leaks files in May 2012 on Cash Investigation - the Underhand Tactics Series - broadcasted on France 2, French national network. Premieres Lignes also collaborated with BBC Panorama programme.   Perrin has been investigating tax...

Fashion brand H&M has changed the clothing retail business for good. Offering stylish clothes at affordable prices: here is the Swedish firm’s recipe for success. Through their 3000 stores, 15 billion euros worth of clothes and accessories are sold every year. Profits reached 1.7 billion euros in 2012. Partnerships with couture designers and renowned NGOs, good management of their...

Amateur videos show police in Bahrain shooting gas grenades into houses - a practice banned under international law. As the houses fill with suffocating tear gas, seniors and children die first. At least 39 people are known to have died like this - a small figure in comparison to the 1,400 Syrians killed by Sarin gas last summer. But both attacks shared one thing in common: the chemicals were...

500,000 women raped on one side and hundreds turned combatants on the other. These fighting women have little in common; some have degrees and others are illiterate, some joined the regular army, FARDC, whilst others joined rebel groups. The conflict has been going on for 20 years in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At stake are the country's precious minerals: gold, diamonds and a smartphone...

The Awá tribe of Brazil is facing slow and inevitable destruction as those who want their forest close in around them. The Awás who number around 450 are among the last hunter-gatherers in the world. “Survival” – a NGO defending the right of isolated people to their way of life – is campaigning for them. According to Survival, suicide rates among isolated people are soaring following...

Mossad’s Kidon unit has none but one objective: to kill the enemies of Israel. Active all over the world, this unit of 50 elite agents obeys only one man: the Israeli Prime Minister. What are their assassination techniques? How do they choose their targets? How do they operate in Iran, Jordan and Europe? Did they poison Yasser Arafat? And what are the diplomatic consequences of their...

There is an invisible war going on in the West Bank. Theocratic Israeli settlers are waging a daily war on their Palestinian neighbors. They harass them, attack their houses, destroy their olive trees, move their livestock. They do all they can to turn their life into a nightmare. How come all these ever more numerous videos had no echo in traditional media? This investigation reveals what’s...

Worldwide, most popular football is an annual 400 billion euro industry. The “mercato” trades multi-million euro footballers’ transfers between famous clubs. But within these overhyped sports news, much more discreet people play a decisive and very lucrative role: footballers’ agents. This investigation reveals the hidden mechanisms of this huge market. The role of these influent...

3 destinies, 3 perspectives, from the forbidden country of the Arab Revolution. A country that has been forgotten by the West. These images are extremely rare. Outstanding, clandestinely filmed footage. In the last year, the repression has caused more than 70 deaths. That is a lot for this small country with a population of 600,000, run by the Al Khalifa royal family. The people of Bahrain are...

If you want to know how a leading a war can be compatible with a Nobel Peace Prize, ask President Obama. According to the US government, unmanned drones are the perfect weapon to pursue the “War on Terror”. Of surgical precision and preventing risk to American life, drones are the way to make it “clean”. Under the Obama administration, the use of drone strikes has exploded. Faced with...

  In the 21st century, tobacco will continue to kill 8 million people each year. More than the dead of all the wars, nuclear attacks and the deadliest diseases malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS, put together. To reach such a commercial success, tobacco companies have used every trick in the book to sell their deadly product; blatant or illegal, furtive or camouflaged advertising,...

For a long time, China forged itself a role of sub-contractor, attracting multinationals from across the globe. As in the United States and in Europe, companies laid off massively, their relocation to China enabled them to make huge profits thanks to a cheap workforce. These multinationals' practices taught the Chinese a lot. Today, with the power of 2,800 billion euros in foreign currencies,...

In association with BBC Panorama, we investigate the world of tax havens and show how some of the world’s most famous companies are using a tax haven at the heart of Europe to save millions in tax. Secret documents reveals how companies like GlaxoSmithKline have been getting big tax breaks on billion pound transactions in the tiny country of Luxembourg. By opening offices there, diverting...

The biggest controversy of the digital age. This revealing film highlights the latest developments in the WikiLeaks scandal as more sensitive state secrets are published for all to see. Featuring a brand new interview with WikiLeaks founder and the enemy of the Pentagon, Julian Assange, as bio-pic The Fifth Estate hits the big screen. We meet journalists and hackers from London, Washington,...