Europe discovers itself weak. The crisis, whose end the experts have gravely been announcing for months, seems to be overtaking more and more countries and to be reaching even the strongholds of western wealth. Countries with solid and apparently untouchable economies like France begin to launch hasty plans for deficit reduction.

Like every indebted family, even Europe, panic-stricken, tries not only to reduce its expenses, but to sell its family treasures, too. ‘Privatize’ seems to be the magic word to reassure the markets.
It’s enough to dig a little to find out that, behind the scenes, a real discount sale of public properties is taking place. Castles, islands, mountains, historical buildings. Public means everybody’s - in other words ‘ours’. Someone is selling a large part of our heritage behind our backs.

Europe for sale is an investigative documentary. It examines the ways in which European public institutions have got so indebted during the last thirty years, it reveals who has been favoured by this indebtedness and finally it discovers the reasons that have lead national politicians not to confront with their loss of power caused by the rise of the European Union’s role and by globalisation.

The documentary will unfold as a personal journey around Europe to explain how and why European national political institutions have ended up selling its lakes, its castles and its palaces.

Following seven main stories in different countries, the film will meet some of the main players of the real estate market, offering an inside vision on how does the selling and acquisition process of public proprieties take place, and drawing the profiles of the new buyers and of their business motivations in their acquisition. What it is the size of this market?

Europe for sale will travel around Europe to find its specialists and its players. By doing so it will give full evidence to the widespread dimension of this process and of its consequences. The different locations of the journey together with the visual discovery of the public proprieties for sale will give the film a natural surrounding where time has another dimension and poetry, which certainly cannot be found in the business and political offices.

Director
Andreas Pichler
Story
Roberto Cena, Enrica Capra
Screenplay
Andreas Pichler, Alejandro de la Fuente (trattamento originale)
Director of photography
Marco Pasquini
Film Editor
Mich?le Hollander
Original Music
Hélène Blazy
Sound
Gianluca Costamagna, Michele Tarantola
Altri credits
Julian Altuna, Stéphanie Binet, Valentina Monti, David Paede, Sandra Schmidt, Angelos Tsaousis, Joseph Zacune, Jorge Costa, Alice Goorissen, Aija Salovaara, Lina Bakalexi (ricercatori). Fabrizio Allione (Coordinatore).
Cast and characters
Salvatore Settis, Diego Della Valle, Andrew St. Ledger etc.
Production Director
Producer
Enrica Capra
Co-producer
Luc Martin-Gousset
Production
GraffitiDoc (Torino), Point du Jour (Francia), RAI Cinema, ARTE France.
Con il sostegno di CNC, Procirep, Film Commission Torino Piemonte e della Regione Piemonte (Piemonte Doc Film Fund - Fondo regionale per il documentario - sviluppo produzione 2011), con il supporto del Programma MEDIA dell’Unione Europea – Slate Funding.
Festival - markets - events

European Prize for Journalism – Video category 2015

Contacts
Enrica Capra | GraffitiDoc
Last update: 19 April 2018