No hardboiled revenge thriller, this. Instead, the acclaimed director of Manufactured Landscapes, Jennifer Baichwal, brings Margaret Atwood’s bestselling novel about debtor/creditor relationships to the screen with Payback, an absorbing cinematic essay that takes a look at debt and the shadow side of wealth.

If it sounds hopelessly dry, it’s most assuredly not. Large philosophical and social questions are interwoven engagingly with historical issues, and in a much more manageable and handy way than the filmic adaptation of Naomi Klein’s tangentially related but similarly ambitious The Shock Doctrine. Baichwal grafts exquisite, gorgeous visuals onto her telling, too, resulting in a lively work that transcends the material’s potentially staid subject matter.

While debt and financial matters are much in the news presently, and pretty much have been since the financial crisis of 2008, Payback is not explicitly a movie of hedge fund management and other financial shell games. Its historical longview is significant and thought-provoking, and invested in a much broader definition of obligation and responsiblity, both individual and societal. From the enslavement of migrant workers to criminal prison sentences and the aftermath of the BP oil spill, Baichwal examines indebtedness in a sort of free-association style that assumes a base-level of intellectual curiosity and engagement on the part of her audience. Assuming that’s present in a viewer, Payback delivers much for thought and conversation.

Housed in a regular, clear plastic Amaray case with an evocative, simple-text-on-red cover (“Some debts can’t be paid with money”), Payback comes to DVD presented in a gorgeous 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer free of any grain or edge enhancement issues, with both 5.1 and 2.0 stereo audio tracks as well as optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing. In addition to its theatrical trailer and an insert booklet with notes from Baichwal, bonus features consist of three excised scenes with Atwood and Jane Goodall, and a Q&A session with Baichwal and Atwood after the movie’s North American premiere at New York’s Film Forum. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. B+ (Movie) B (Disc)