Payback

Based on Margaret Atwood’s bestselling book Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, Jennifer Baichwal’s feature documentary Payback offers a fascinating look at debt as a mental construct and traces how it influences relationships, societies, governing structures and even the fate of the planet.

The film explores the link between debtor and creditor in a variety of contexts and places—from the mountains of northern Albania to the tomato fields of southern Florida—blending compelling stories of “owing” and “being owed” with the views of renowned figures like Karen Armstrong, Louise Arbour, William Rees and Raj Patel.

Stories and insights are woven together by the prescient and acute observations of Atwood herself, who demonstrates both that the concept of debt lies at the very core of human experience, and that, because it is a concept, how we think about it changes how it works.