The Divine Order - 2017 -Die göttliche Ordnung

The Divine Order is set in Switzerland in 1971 where, despite the worldwide social upheavals of the previous decade, women were still denied the right to vote. When unassuming and dutiful housewife Nora (Marie Leuenberger, winner of a Best Actress award at Tribeca) is forbidden by her husband to take a part-time job, her frustration leads to her becoming the poster child of her town’s suffragette movement. 

Interview (13:28) youtube with Director Petra Volpe

Her newfound celebrity brings humiliation, threats, and the potential end to her marriage, but, refusing to back down, she convinces the women in her village to go on strike...and makes a few startling discoveries about her own liberation. Uplifting and crowd-pleasing, this charming, captivating film is a time-capsule that could not be more timely.

Released in August 2017, it was selected as the Swiss entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. The Swiss film Die göttliche Ordnung was shown in the U.S. with the translated title The divine order.

Review1

Women in some cantons were afforded the right to vote on cantonal issues in the 1960s. But it was not until 1971 that a referendum finally led to a law being passed that allowed women to vote on national matters. A new Swiss film sheds light on (and endearingly pokes fun at) this fact, and offers a semi fictionalized account of what life was like in Switzerland in the early 1970s.

Review2

The laughs are mixed with clumsy, comradely tenderness between the women. “I wanted to prove that a feminist political film can be funny,” Volpe says, “because humour is a wonderful seducing force in cinema, and it really opens people up. Once you’re allowed to laugh, you’re also allowed to cry.” (...)

But marital law that a man could forbid his wife to work and that women couldn’t open their own bank accounts didn’t change till 1988 in Switzerland. (...)

As Volpe has taken The Divine Order around European and American cinemas, she’s noticed a chord being struck. “I’ve learned that there’s a huge desire and longing for female stories,” she observes. “And that it’s possible to create empathy for injustice with movies. Something that also made me a bit sad is that women are extremely grateful for this movie. 

ROTTEN TOMATOES _46 reviews

===== BONUS TRACK

REVIEW FRENCH_   « Les Conquérantes » : les Suissesses se rebiffent

In FRENCH vlog: Cemilchosesatedire (9:23) 

In FRENCH audio: La chronique de Pascal Bernheim (9:37)