What do you owe? What, or who, owes you? Payback is an incisive and moving exploration of debt, not simply as an economic condition, but as a primal human dilemma. Margaret Atwood’s visionary work Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth is the basis for this riveting and poetic documentary on “debt” in its various formssocietal, personal, environmental, spiritual, criminal, and of course, economic. Filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal (Manufactured Landscapes) strikingly interweaves these (sometimes surprising) debtor/creditor relationships and frames four stories―crime and punishment in Albania and Canada, the ecological deficit incurred in the Gulf disaster and alarming labour practices in Florida―against Atwood’s witty, eclectic analysis of deeply rooted notions of human obligation. Supported by astute commentary from Conrad Black, Louise Arbour, Raj Patel, William Rees and Karen Armstrong, Payback offers an expansive, thoughtful meditation on one of the most urgent topics of our times. Suggesting that how we think about debt changes how it works, Payback is ultimately a vital, rousing call for a better, balanced and forgiving world. Yet, as Arbour asks, where do we start?