People who go to their house bank for a personal consultation have either too much or too little money. And speaking of “house banks” – that sounds like a special bond, the “financial doctor you trust”. In any case, this special need for consultation arises from disparities: between dreams and income, investment needs and risk forecasts, personal circumstances and objective constraints. This in turn gives rise to a special culture of conversation, one that follows similar rules in Bolivia, Switzerland or Pakistan – that, at least, is the thesis of Sebastian Winkels’ film. And it doesn’t matter into which financial institution in this world we follow him and what language we hear there: superimposed upon each other, the images and soundtracks of the consultations become a sound that the bank customer as a collective subject knows only too well. Oh, the shame about one’s financial impotence! Ah, the confessions one feels constrained to make. And, oh dear, the helplessness with which one must surrender to the rows of numbers.

The camera takes sides – not on a moral level, but on a dramatic one. It is always placed behind the tables where the skilled rejecters and form explainers are sitting, of whom we rarely see more than a sleeve, though. And it faces up to the looks of passing applicants and consultation-seekers like an experienced anthropologist: incorruptible but touchable.

Sylvia Görke

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Nominated for ver.di Prize for Solidarity, Humanity and Fairness, Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize, DEFA Sponsoring Prize