Educational Media Reviews Online

This film copiously lives up to its title. Beginning with a brief but glowing portrayal of Muhammad Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Grameen Bank, the film quickly shifts to an inexorable scrutiny of the practices of Grameen Bank and the entire phenomenon of microloans.

In order to encourage personal entrepreneurship in developing countries, Grameen Bank, its affiliates, and other banks of varying sizes and scopes make small loans (micro loans) to individuals and groups to begin a business or undertake another community-centered enterprise. The filmmakers, however, uncover abundant examples of mismanagement, usury, corruption, and misdirection in many cases of this seemingly philanthropic undertaking. Many banks, including Grameen Bank, require a short-term, rigorous repayment schedule with high interest rates. The audience is presented with numerous accounts of evictions, spiraling debt, and even instances in which borrowers needed to go to local loan sharks in order to keep up with the micro loan payments. The film makers cite questionable practices of Grameen Bank including the movement of funds in order to avoid tax consequences.

The Micro Debt is well produced with excellent camera work and an abundance of interviews, mostly from Mexico and Bangaladesh, where Grameen Bank is headquartered. The film is well researched, offering data on successes and failures of microloans. While advocates of micro loans insist that the impoverished feel entrusted and empowered with a micro loan, the work concludes with a call for a different development model: one that encourages larger increase business development potential, not what often amounts to cottage industries.