Reflections on the Dynamics of Debt Through the Prism of (Father’s) Debt in the Movies Stone Horizonts by Simo Simatovic and Summer in the Golden Valley by Srdjan Vuletic

Abstract

In the current climate of debt crisis, debt, both public and private, has become one of the main concerns of economic experts and political leaders alike. At the same time, numerous studies have been published that address the issue of debt from different perspectives and disciplines. Referring to the comprehensive study by an anarchist and anthropologist David Graeber titled Debt: the First 5000 Years (2011), and to the relevant theses of a sociologist and philosopher Maurizio Lazzarato elaborated in his study The Making of the Indebted Man (2011), this paper thematizes the cultural dimension of debt. The aim of the paper is to examine the possibilities of reflecting upon new (old?) solidarity and unification in the fight against excessive indebtedness and unconditional acceptance of the status of the indebted person. This is done through the presentation and analysis of monetary and moral debt, or debt of honor, as key points of plot and unraveling of the narrative in the films Stone Horizons (1953) by Šimo Šimatović and Summer in the Golden Valley (2003) by Srđan Vuletić.