A documentary heist movie about debt. How to film something that is both invisible and touches us all at the same time? In a daring and fun way, the art and film duo of Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell proves it's possible, all the while creating a serious and engaged film on a seemingly abstract subject. Debt, as the documentary shows, concerns us all. Even if we do not have any loans ourselves, we are part of an economic system in which the financial elite is committed to maintaining a continuous state of indebtedness. Edelstyn and Powell combine activist documentary practice with artistic, performance and social activism. Filmed over five years, the film captures their project, in which they create a fictional currency, use it to repurchase a million pounds of debt - and dispose of it with a bang. The artistic operation is supported by a thorough study of the topic and the opinions of many experts (including David Graeber, who died in 2020, and is the author of "Debt: The First 5000 Years" and "Bullshit Jobs"). Rarely has it been possible to combine such different activities and cinematic conventions to create a documentary that is intended to educate, inspire, but also to provoke anger.

Michał Matuszewski