A world without money? It seems unimaginable today. Yet people once lived without it. How did that world work, and what led to the invention of money?
The search takes us from Mesopotamian clay tablets more than 5,000 years old to the first coins minted in Lydia and paper money in medieval China. Along the way, debts, kings, wars and taxes emerge as driving forces in money’s history.
In Melanesia, ritual exchange offers a different perspective on economic life. Challenging the familiar story that money grew out of barter, the documentary reveals how deeply it is bound up with power and the relationships between us.
PRODUCTION
Eschata Film
on behalf of WDR
in collaboration with Arte
2025
WRITTEN & DIRECTED
Johannes Preuss
PRODUCERS
Carlo Märzke
Elena Winterer
Charlie Niesner
ESCHATA EDITORIAL
Moritz Schulz
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Jakob Schmidt
Jannis Funk
COMMISSIONING EDITORS (WDR)
Ann-Christin Gertzen
Thomas Kamp
Tom Beyer