Movie "The Narrative": documentary on the inner turmoil of ex-UBS trader Adoboli
Disgraced former UBS investment banker Kweku Adoboli in his new home in Ghana.
Image: Keystone
In Ghana, the trial against Kweku Adoboli was re-enacted with local amateur actors.
Image: Keystone
Disgraced former UBS investment banker Kweku Adoboli in his new home in Ghana.
Image: Keystone
In Ghana, the trial against Kweku Adoboli was re-enacted with local amateur actors.
Image: Keystone
"The Narrative" traces the story of former UBS investment banker Kweku Adoboli, who was convicted of fraud in 2012. The documentary shows his version of events at the time. The film opens the 61st Solothurn Film Festival.
21.01.2026, 10:05
SDA
The documentary by Swiss filmmakers Bernard Weber and Martin Schilt opens with parts of an email that Adoboli wrote to a UBS accountant before the whole fraudulent house of cards collapsed. In it, he admits that he traded off the books to hide losses - in the hope of recouping them later. He takes full responsibility and is sorry, Adoboli reads out.
He wrote an e-mail in his greatest naivety, he now says. What is not read out is that Adoboli also explained in the email - which is publicly available - how he concealed the trades from his colleagues and his team leader.
How did the huge fraud come about?
After a trading loss of 2.3 billion US dollars, Adoboli was sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud in 2012, but was able to leave prison early in 2015 due to good behavior. The jury acquitted him of the charge of accounting fraud.
From 2008 until his arrest in September 2011, he allegedly circumvented trading limits at UBS in London with unauthorized speculation and fictitious transactions. How did this come about from Adoboli's perspective? He can't see himself in the picture painted by the media: Gambler or "criminal mastermind".
The documentary aims to show the mechanisms in the bank and at the trading desk, the overwork, the megalomania of the investment banking world. Adoboli did not act for his own profit, did not enrich himself. He sees himself as a victim of the system, of the mood in society at the time.
Imprisonment and deportation
At the trial, he pleaded not guilty and denied that his team colleagues and superiors had known anything about the illegal methods. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority later found significant control deficiencies at UBS, and the British supervisory authority fined the major bank 27.9 million pounds for the Adoboli case.
The two directors followed him closely for years - 14 years have passed since the initial idea for the documentary. The interviews for the film and a large part of the shooting took place in Accra in Ghana, where Adoboli lives today.
The filmmakers also accompanied him from the time after his release from prison until his deportation from England in 2018, where Adoboli had lived since he was twelve years old. During the three-year struggle against deportation, the viewer empathizes with him and feels how drastic this fate must be.
The perspective of the protagonist
The film lives above all from its protagonists - first and foremost Adoboli, who narrates in a reflective and authentic way and thus provides deep insights into his life. The 2012 trial in Ghana is re-enacted in the film with black amateur actors and verbatim dialog between the public prosecutor and witnesses from the trial transcript.
UBS does not get a chance to speak. Adoboli does not make any claims against the bank either.
The film manages to show the complexity of the case: It is about responsibility, systemic mechanisms and error culture in the financial industry. But it is also about the power of media narratives, social prejudice and public perception - the "storytelling game". At the same time, it is about Adoboli the person and the positive racism that can be experienced as a well-integrated black person in Western culture.
The trauma remains
The film shows Adoboli's inner turmoil: the trauma remains and he finds it difficult to make peace with what he has experienced. And to accept the new - completely different life far away from his friends in England - in Ghana.
In fact, in addition to the changing market conditions, the Adoboli case was also one of the triggers for changes at Switzerland's largest bank. In the wake of the London "gambling scandal", the then UBS boss Oswald Grübel resigned. The new boss, Sergio Ermotti, downsized the investment bank after the billion-euro debacle and focused on wealth management.
The documentary "The Narrative" opens the Solothurn Film Festival, which will run from Wednesday to January 28. The Swiss cinema premiere is on March 12, 2026.
*This text by Young-Sim Song (AWP) was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.
