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

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

CREDITS

Original Title: Talking Money

Country: Germany, Switzerland, Georgia

Year: 2017

Language: English, French, Georgian, German, Italian, Spanish, Swiss German

Subtitle: English

Runtime: 81 min.

Format: DCP

Color: Colour

Director: Sebastian Winkels

Producer: Susann Schimk

Cinematographer: Sebastian Winkels

Editor: Frederik Bösing

Sound: Frederik Bösing, Nelson Marca Esprella, Corneille Houssou, Till Passow, Markus CM Schmidt,
Johannes Schneeweiß, Niko Tarielashvili

Script: Sebastian Winkels

CONTACTS

Susann Schimk, solo:film GmbH, info@solofilmproduktion.de, www.solofilmproduktion.de

SHARE THIS FILM

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.

Seven years after the great financial crisis that shook the banking system at its core and showed once
again the world how thousands of people’s lives could be destroyed in a glimpse by a bad choice or
malicious counsel, the film illustrates how the relation between bank and client has changed.

alking Money is an observational documentary shot at bank consultation tables all over the world.
Weaving stories from eight countries into one global money conversation, it virtually transforms the
cinema into a bank. Purely experiential!

Who are we when we talk about money?

Intimate conversations in an impersonal place: from Bolivia to Pakistan, Benin to Switzerland, men
and women sit down across from their neighborhood bankers to discuss the intimacies of their
financial lives. Far from the glamour of distant Wall Street, this is the reality of personal banking,
where one’s life problems are a matter of business.

In fifteen spontaneously recorded encounters, the bank table turns into a stage for confessions and
masquerades, where consultants and clients try their best to look solid and trustworthy. Filming
entirely from the bank’s side of the table, Sebastian Winkels offers the audience a place in a bizarre
power play, exploring a complicated relation called ’money’.
A multi-voiced comment on capitalism that reveals how the invisible power of money works on all of
us, no matter who and where we are.