In The Divine Order, Switzerland’s early 1970s struggle for women rights is represented by two families at the center of the movement, mainly Nora (Marie Leuenberger) who seeks a more meaningful purpose in life, fancying the prospect of working as a secretary upon seeing an opening in a newspaper advertisement. According to her husband Hans Maximilian Simonischek), she is forbidden from taking the job as the law dictates she must comply with whatever he wishes. Naturally, a movie like The Divine Order functions at its best when we see subjugation in action, giving audiences, even more, a reason to root for these determined and ambitious women. Unfortunately, most, if not all, of the characters come across as competently acted archetypes that don’t really make much of an impact.
The Divine Order screens at the Chicago International Film Festival on:
Thu, Oct 19, 2017 6:00 PM
SCHEDULED TO ATTEND:
Director Petra Volpe
Switzerland, 1971: Nora is a young housewife and mother who lives with her husband and their two sons in a peaceful little village. Here, in the Swiss countryside, little or nothing is felt of the huge social upheavals that the movement of May 1968 has caused. Nora’s life, too, has been unaffected; she is a retiring, quiet person, well liked by everyone – until she begins to campaign publicly and pugnaciously for women’s right to vote, an issue that will be put before the male voters on February 7th, 1971.
The Divine Order releases in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center on November 17th and has no UK release information yet.
