Documentary in which a former banker explains how the opaque world of finance works.

Picture gallery

Rainer Voss, a former trader who worked in banking for 10 years, is interviewed in a Frankfurt bank that’s been closed for six years. He unravels the tangled ball of string that is finance, from the origins of the financial crisis (deregulation and simultaneous digitization of the markets) to by-products developed to neutralize all kinds of risk. To complement the comments of the banker – who doesn’t name names (and who demands the camera be turned off when there is even a suspicion of illegal activities and when the interviewer asks about repercussions against Voss’ family), the director includes extensive archival footage about the trial against Goldman Sachs, which was accused of speculating, and of Jérôme Kerviel, the employee deemed responsible for the losses of the bank Société générale.

Marc Bauder’s beautifully shot documentary goes behind the façades of Frankfurt’s many skyscrapers. Both form and depth demonstrate that behind the windows – which reflect the light without showing what’s inside – there hides a world whose methods remain secret despite a pretence of transparency. In contrast with the religious music (Stabat Mater by Pergolesi) played at the beginning and end of the film , the electronic compositions by Bernhard Fleischmann harmonize with the unbridled rhythm of business practices that are disconnected from reality and therefore destined for a major upheaval.