The Grab

2024 1h 44m EN

🙌

7.8

BANGER

🍅

82%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.4

IMDB

★7.8TMDB · 12🍅82%Rotten Tomatoes●60Metacritic★7.4IMDB · 751

Documentary

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

An investigative journalist uncovers the money, influence, and alarming rationale behind covert land grabs by some of the world’s most powerful countries.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Pat Roberts
Self (archive footage)
Erik Prince
Self (archive footage)
Antony Blinken
Self (archive footage)
Betsy DeVos
Self (archive footage)
Kamala Harris
Self (archive footage)
Jared Kushner
Self (archive footage)
Vladimir Putin
Self (archive footage)
Xi Jinping
Self (archive footage)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Writers: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Languages: English, Russian
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 2 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Russian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, shot by Jonathan Ingalls. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Jeff Beal. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Davis Coombe shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Pat Roberts and Erik Prince and Antony Blinken carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt21820452 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 12 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Gabriela Cowperthwaite directs. Jonathan Ingalls behind the camera. Jeff Beal scores. Davis Coombe cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Russian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 2 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Russian.
3Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, shot by Jonathan Ingalls. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Jeff Beal. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Davis Coombe shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Pat Roberts and Erik Prince and Antony Blinken carry the top of the cast.
7IMDB entry: tt21820452 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 12 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
9Classified under 12 themes, including "appropriation of another human being", "docudrama", "power politics", "land grab".

The technical file

Cinematography: Jonathan Ingalls
Original score: Jeff Beal
Editing: Davis Coombe
Runtime: 104 min · 1h 44m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $10,588
Original language: EN
IMDB: The Grab (2024)
Rotten Tomatoes: 82% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 60/100
IMDB rating: 7.4/10 · 751 votes

Awards

13 wins & 15 nominations total

Also by

Gabriela Cowperthwaite

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Brent Marchant2024-07-09
★ 6/10
Sometimes a story is so big and involved that it’s difficult to get a handle on it. That can be quite a challenge for even the most adept documentarians and investigative reporters, no matter how eager or adept they may be in taking on such an ambitious project. And that, unfortunately, is the case with the latest offering from director Gabriela Cowperthwaite in her eight-year-long collaboration with journalist Nathan Halverson of The Center for Investigative Reporting. In essence, the film seeks to identify and characterize the new flashpoints underlying emerging geopolitical conflicts. Just as those in recent years have been driven by the compulsion to secure valuable energy supplies, today’s budding battlegrounds are once again tied to acquiring access to precious resources – in this case, food and water, along with the aquifers, agricultural land and processing facilities needed to yield these commodities. Evidence of the desperate, growing need for obtaining these materials has already begun to surface – albeit not always overtly – in such incidents as the Arab Spring and even the War in Ukraine. And, because of this developing crisis, those interested in locking down these resources have started scrambling to acquire them, primarily clandestinely, in regions where they’re most plentiful. These efforts have been spearheaded by multinational corporations and global financial institutions in cooperation with countries that are experiencing, or have historically experienced, critical food and water shortages, such as China, Russia, Venezuela and the nations of the Middle East. And, to help ensure the success of these ventures, they have enlisted the support of mercenary muscle to achieve their goals. High-profile targets, primarily in Africa and even parts of the US, have come under growing scrutiny, unscrupulously grabbed from their rightful owners and leaving them destitute as a result. Needless to say, this is an incredibly complicated story, one that’s difficult to tell, and, regrettably, that’s somewhat apparent in the finished product. While the work of Cowperthwaite and Halverson is undoubtedly sincere, having brought a great deal of previously buried information to light, it’s nearly impossible to relate this complex narrative in a concise and coherent manner. Given the many story threads involved and the well-camouflaged structures that have been set up to keep the truth and its principal participants concealed, it’s a genuine challenge to intelligibly expose the overarching nature of this highly convoluted big picture. Some elements are thus underdeveloped or left incomplete, making this film an often-frustrating watch. That’s unfortunate considering the importance of this story, one that has been largely flying below the radar and certainly deserves to be more widely exposed and detailed. With that said, though, “The Grab” represents a valuable start, and one can only hope there will be more releases like this that manage to dig deeper and discover more. It’s also heartening that the picture addresses some of the victories that have come about in combatting this issue, particularly those that have benefitted Africans who have been subjected to what is essentially a new form of continental colonization. In an age where increasing social and political volatility is arising due to a failure to effectively address the world’s hunger, it’s essential that we become aware of this issue before it gets out of hand and leads us down a path we don’t dare pursue.

Production companies