Was watching The International yesterday. Very polished movie, sparse urban landscape, each shot follows the 30/100 framing, beautiful work with the negative-space/background-showcasing-the-foreground. Clive Owen forms the grungy chaotic element inside a deeply orderly city scene, in every scene.

One scene caught my attention -

            * * *

Umberto Calvini : The IBBC is a bank. Their objective isn't to control the conflict ......  it's to control the debt that the conflict produces. 

You see, the real value of a conflict, the true value, is in the debt that it creates. You control the debt, you control everything. 

You find this upsetting, yes?  ..... but this is the very essence of the banking industry, to make us all, whether we be nations or individuals, slaves to debt.

            * * *

When I first saw this movie, I saw only the action. Now when I see it, I only see the setting and the context. Of course, after reading Graeber, the quote is nothing new, but I couldn't comprehend it then.

is it confusing, that our middlemen are sitting at what we call the centre, and our owners are walking among us, pretending to be one of us ?