Review: ‘Shame and Money’ portrays the endless drudgery of just getting by
2026 / Dir. Visar Moringa / 2026 Sundance Film Festival
Rating: 4/5
Watch if you like: Bicycle Thieves and Parasite but if there was no caper to get rich and it was just the endless drudgery of trying to survive.
Sundance 2026’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize Dramatic winner Shame and Money could also win an award for the most on-the-nose film title. Shaban (Astrit Kabashi), a dairy farmer by trade in rural Kosovo, is forced to take his wife, mother, and three young daughters to Istanbul in hopes of scraping by after being screwed over by his deadbeat brother. Realizing he can’t make it on the limited janitorial hours offered by his much richer brother-in-law, Shaban waits each day on the streets as a day laborer.
Told with minimal stylistic flourishes, Shame and Money is not so much a slow movie as one of repetition, with each day another slog to put money on the table and maintain dignity. This is a quietly powerful movie about what it means to be resilient, who gets to succeed in a “developing country,” and who gets left behind. In a scene that I keep replaying in my head, Shaban’s daughter tries to find out when her father’s birthday is, to which he can only say that it’s sometime after St. George’s Day. “But when do you celebrate?” she frustratedly asks. “I never did,” he replies.