Let’s Make Money Erwin Wagenhofer

Let’s Make Money shows the dark side of our capitalist society, and even though my knowledge of finance is limited, I can say that the film paints a very bleak picture without giving us any hope for a quick fix.

Wagenhofer leapfrogs the globe to give a diverse range of people with small or big parts to play in the financial world a chance to voice their opinions: from an investment banker in Singapore who avidly defends the justness of his trade, to an Indian economist who bitterly complains about the rising costs of living, and a Spanish real estate tycoon who’s happily building useless McCondo’s on the Costa del Sol.

Even though almost all the involved interviewees acknowledge the excesses of the system, the baffling complexity and the huge scale of the problem mean that any solution is going to be convoluted and very hard to enforce. At one point, an American who claims to have been an “economic assassin” calmly explains how he used to enforce corporate interests in rambunctious Third World countries, and even alleges that the invasion of Iraq was partly the result of the failure of his partners in currency crime.

As in his previous film We Feed the World, Wagenhofer is an invisible ghost in the machine, never appearing onscreen or on the soundtrack, relying on his subjects and the inherent power of the images to tell the story. Let’s Make Money is an important, expertly made and extremely relevant documentary. The film isn’t perfection on celluloid just yet - while this may be a result of my own miscalculating nature, there were certain points where I found it difficult to keep focusing on the film. It felt like Wagenhofer was overstaying his welcome somewhat, even if the points that were being made were very important ones. A bit more frugality in the editing room would have been wise.

Nevertheless, when we’re all out on the ravaged and plundered streets of our devastated cities in hunter-gatherer tribes, give your respect to the wild-eyed Austrian prophet covered in tattered rags - who keeps crying “I don’t wanna say I told you so, but…” - instead of roasting and eating him.

Luuk van Huet