If you believe the polls, the Norwegians were the happiest nation on earth in 2008. After all, they not only lived in the most liveable country on earth, no, in Vik (population 2,800) they also boasted the town with the healthiest economy and highest quality of life. But all this is past, because today the vultures are circling over this picturesque spot. So what is rotten in the state of, well, not Denmark, but certainly not just Norway either? – In Hans Petter Moland’s film two representatives of Vik embark on a journey that ends in a better understanding of what holds the complex mechanics of a global economy between real and financial economy, bubble and crash, toxic assets and asset backed securities together. The story is told through visits to various sites of the latest global financial crisis and succinct explanations given by a dozen or so of the top actors and observers of current events, including Carlota Perez (“Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital”, Bill Janeway (broker), Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Prize for economics 2001) and Michael Lewis (“The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine”).
– Ralph Eue

Saying “I love you” on the phone presupposes a personal history. But Hari has never met his future bride Suman, with whom he exchanges these tender words daily over the phone while driving his taxi over the bumpy streets of his Indian hometown at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains. It’s an arranged wedding, its history the thousand-year-old tradition behind it. Hari’s father won’t rest until his youngest son, who is already 30 after all, is finally married. He invests all his money in this project, for one thing is certain: the wedding will be colourful and expensive.
Who wants to make their father unhappy? And yet Hari has found a way to soften the tradition a bit: his mobile phone. “When you talk on the phone every day you would even fall in love with a stone”, he says in his inimitable and practical way. The usually cheerful young man’s straightforwardness is a constant surprise. And yet the closer the wedding approaches the more thoughtful and withdrawn the young man seems to be. Because he knows that Suman is not a stone and there’s a real concern that she won’t be able to handle the separation from her family. This unusual love must still pass its acid test – at the end of a long ceremony on which the bridal couple have the least influence. The story of this traditional wedding comes alive with its small signs of cautious modernisation to which Hari makes his modest contribution.
– Lars Meyer