Saw this at the Berlinale 2020 filmfestival. Very informative documentary about things I thought I understood, finding myself confronted with the clear conclusion that I never really did. Don't be embarrassed when you feel the same after watching this. You are no different from the various experts who were interviewed, some even were left baffled on the filmmaker's questions, not knowing how to answer, though speaking eloquently and not visibly hindered by legal counsel or communication departments.
I saw only one who was evasive, along the line of "your sort of people", apparently assuming that all journalists are left-wing by definition and thus think negatively about free economics in general and banking in particular. Of course, some companies did not want to be interviewed at all and declined to answer her questions sent to them in advance. Another tactic was to cut down the allotted time for the interview to a harmless half hour (two hours were requested initially).
The documentary opens with very well visualized illustrations showing how a loan contract appears in the books of the bank: it starts as two separate entities from the outset, one of these giving out the wanted money to pay the house, and the other one assuming that it will be paid back in time. Both contracts add as extra lines to the balance sheet on opposite sides (so in a way "cancelling out" each other). After having digested this, it becomes abundantly clear how bad loans can corrupt the balance sheet and thus the financial position of the bank, especially when they start to appear in large numbers, a sort of rotting process, eventually adding up to a mere disaster.
Car manufactory BMW's Finanzvorstand (CFO) opened up an extra viewpoint, when saying that half of their cars sold are being financed by them, adding a second profit line, next to their core business of marketing, producing and selling cars. This makes them partly a bank and partly a manufacturer, blurring the separation line between these two economic factors, one creating money (like a bank) and one using it (like us).
All in all, very informative while educating us on things we thought we understood more or less but never really did. It is a bit ominous that the many experts who were interviewed, were no better in their understanding of the mechanisms involved.