Traces how the French filmmaker mobilizes environmental imaginaries to explore the exploitation of human and natural resources within global circuits of capitalism.

Drawing on theoretical frameworks from the environmental humanities and ecocinema studies, Ecologies of Debt intervenes into current debates questioning the modern divide between nature and culture. The book argues that French filmmaker Claire Denis's careful depiction of debt-ridden environments makes legible how dominant ideas of nature obscure modern politics of extraction. Informed by decolonial and ecofeminist thought, the book shows how Denis's cinema calls out the debts accrued through resource extraction, sexual violence, and unpaid reproductive labor in evocative images and fragmentary, interwoven narratives. Through close readings of films across Claire Denis's oeuvre, including The Intruder, Chocolat, White Material, The Fence, Trouble Every Day, Bastards, and High Life, Katrin Pesch traces how the filmmaker's visual language exposes social and environmental injustices. She argues that Denis's films show how tropical imaginaries legitimize the ecologies of debt that extend from colonialism to globalized capitalism. At the same time, her films subvert capitalism’s hold on racialized and gendered bodies. Ultimately, Denis's cinema challenges us to rethink indebted relationships and embrace an ethics of care.