Hi there! I am back here
now.
This blog has been neglected
for a few years but now I will tend to it again. Happy 2021!
Last night, I watched "The
Divine Order" on Amazon Prime. It is a German language film set in
Switzerland in 1971. A regular housewife, Nora Ruckstahl, becomes an unlikely
leader for women's suffrage in her village.
In the United States, in just a
few weeks, we are about to watch the inauguration of Kamala Harris as the
first female Vice President of color. The world over, female leaders have
blazed a new trail from Jacinda Ardern – the Prime Minister of New Zealand, to Angela
Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany. Margaret Thatcher (UK), Indira Gandhi (India)
and Golda Meir (Israel), had led their respective countries as Prime Ministers,
decades ago.
It is unimaginable for us that people
openly said that women not having the right to vote or be in a position of political
leadership or even have a place outside the home, was in accordance with the
Divine Order!
The story starts with Nora being
a normal housewife who sees her husband and kids off to work and school, lunch
bags all packed, then takes care of all the chores such as cleaning and laundry
at home. Her father-in-law lives with them and hollers at her for his cup of
tea. She is the one who keeps the house together, from preparing meals to tucking
the kids into bed.
One sees a quiet discontent as
she starts thinking of taking up a part-time job, but her husband Hans objects
to it, even saying it is against the law for her to do it without his
permission. Hans is a loving husband though, and at one point in the film, Nora
calls him “the love of her life”.
Her sense of fairness gets more and
more awakened by happenings in her personal life. Her teenaged niece, Hanna, is
quite rebellious, listening to the rock music of the 70s and heavily influenced
by hippie culture. Her going around with boys has landed her in trouble with
her parents. Offering to mediate and be her chaperone when the girl meets her
new boyfriend whom she is rather serious about, Nora has her first brush with
the feminist movement for gender equality.
Hanna goes off on a two-hour
jaunt with her boyfriend on his motorbike much to Nora’s chagrin. Wandering through
the streets and gazing at shops in the town, she is accosted by women’s right
activists, distributing pamphlets, campaigning for women’s rights to vote. A woman
at a stall introduces her to activist literature and books by authors such as
Betty Friedan.
Nora devours these writings at
home while her husband is away on a work-related trip. They have a profound
impact on her.
Her dissatisfaction with the
status quo grows as Hanna is first sent off to an institution for women, and
when she escapes from there, to a woman’s prison. Hanna’s mother Theresa, a mild,
subservient woman, and Nora visit Hanna in prison, but the girl refuses to
speak with them, having nothing but contempt for her mother’s cowardice for not
standing up for her own daughter.
Nora attends an event with other
women where her husband’s boss, Mrs. Wipf, ironically a woman who had to take
over the family business and had no husband or children, champions the cause of
blocking women’s right to vote and asks for donations. It is then that we see her
first quiet act of courage when she is the only one to refuse donating, and
openly says she supports women’s right to vote.
She becomes good friends with fellow
attendee, an older woman named Vroni, who has lost all her money and the pub
that she and her late husband owned, due to her husband’s gambling. Women did
not have a say in the family’s financial decisions, and Vroni now survives on
welfare. One day, she along with her daughter Magda - a lawyer who is now a stay-at-home
mom and wife of a doctor - and Nora, once saunter into the Italian restaurant
that was once her restaurant, and develop a friendship with the free-spirited
owner, Gabriella, who is separated from her husband and runs the place on her
own.
Nora’s rebellion grows from that
simple “no” at the fundraiser, to getting her hair cut in the latest tyle and
wearing bell bottom jeans to the disapproval of her father-in-law, to telling
her children and father-in-law to clear their own dishes and get what they need
from the fridge. She starts asking for what she wants from asking her husband’s
opinion on women’s suffrage to telling him she wants to work, even applying and
securing an interview without his permission. She starts speaking up against what
is unfair.
The concept of feminine power crosses
over into their intimate lives, too, as Vroni, Nora and Theresa become more aware
of their own sexuality after a talk held by a Swedish lady, drawing upon the
ancient Indian spiritual concept of “yoni” and female power. As she says, “The
personal is political”.
The trickle of rebellion grows
into a flood as many women in the village join her in demanding the right to vote
and the movement reaches a crescendo when all of them go on a strike, piling up
in a big house in one giant camp, taking a break from their homes, husbands and
drudgery.
Nora is a feisty woman, but also a
passionate one who loves her family. The film brings the subtlety and strength of
the love between Hans and Nora despite all the jolts to their relationship.
Swiss women finally won the right to vote in 1971.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
Great movements start off as little acts of rebellion, when one individual says “No” to injustice and inequality, among friends and family, and then in the larger society and world.
