Honestly, after reading the synopsis, I expected to see other variations of global currency. Then I realized that so much of the global currency has been dollarized.

Few thoughts I gleaned from this creative short film:

💵 Definitely got some “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” animation vibes. Love it! 🥰 🥰

💶 The similarities between the diverse paper currency was a little shocking. There were so many noticeable patterns: depictions of a significant cultural or societal moment; or historical figures and monarchs 👸🏻 🤴🏾; cultural relics; or native flora 🌸🌺 or fauna 🐅.

💴 Paper currency tends to round to 5s or 10s. I did notice a “three” as a staple in a certain country’s currency. I forget about the $2 USD.

💷 When people are featured on paper currency, it’s never a side profile (e.g., U.S. Presidents on coin currency). It’s always a person looking straight into the depths of your soul. 👁️

💵 The U.S.’ currency seemed to dominate every part of the film. Was this intentional?? As a metaphoric depiction of the historical and current dollarization trends of global currency? Maybe… 🤔 💭

I noticed the change in the score when the $5 Canadian banknote was featured. The film’s tone shifted from what felt like a serious montage of artistic variations across global currency to a gentle, soft cameo of the stereotypical unproblematic Canadian, specifically an astronaut floating at the International Space Station. I could really be reading into that though—it was just felt conspicuous.

The sound design and editing were sensational, literally. Hearing and seeing the sand collect into waves felt like I was captured between them. Loved it!

If this film did nothing else, it definitely made me want to go research how each country designed its current banknotes. The details are so vast, and creative, and evocative, and specific.

I wonder what this film would look like if it was remade in fifty years. Would there be more banknote variations or fewer? How different would the U.S.’ currency look? Will we ever see Harriet Tubman, or other historical figures, on U.S. banknotes? As the global currency becomes more dollarized, will treasuries do away with specific historical depictions on all money (coins, paper, treasury notices) completely?

The waves at the end of the film reminded me of the issues that are associated with people’s proximities to money and wealth, and the lack thereof. The waves of sand seemed to engulf the bits of money like macrophages. It was disturbingly palpable. As the world’s population continues to grow, global currency continues to fluctuate or devalue over time.  I figured, at some point, there’s going to be a major disruption in wealth distribution globally, an even starker gap that we all experience today. And the people (waves of sand) will overwhelm and disrupt all the power societies instill in the circulation of money/currency/inequities of wealth.