The very title of this film—Debtocracy—strikes an ironic chord of dissonance between Greece’s glorious past and perilous present. Filmmakers Katerina Kiditi and Aris Hatzistefanou wanted to make a film that could explain the convoluted causes of the Greek debt crisis of 2010. By connecting economic history—the revolution of 1821, the German occupation of Greece, the Maastrict Treaty—with the present economic conditions, Kiditi and Hatzisefanou attempt to explain the unrest and offer solutions for avoiding the brink of economic collapse in the future. 

The documentary—funded only with donations from individuals, not corporations—has been wildly successful in Greece. Half a million people watched the film within the first five days of its release.

—Anna Lekas Miller