“The Divine Order” may be headed to the Academy Awards. Switzerland has selected Petra Volpe’s award-winning women’s rights drama to represent the country in the best foreign-language film category at the 2018 Oscars, Variety reports.
Set in rural 1972 Switzerland, “The Divine Order” tells the story of a young mother’s political awakening. Formerly submissive Nora (Marie Leuenberger, “The Circle”) “realizes that the private is political and starts to fight for women’s right to vote,” Volpe shared in an interview with us. “It’s a look back into a shameful chapter of Switzerland’s history — but it also shows the importance of civil courage, which makes the film very timely.”
When we asked the “Dreamland” writer-director what drew her to tell this story, she explained that “women in Switzerland got to right to vote so late, and that they had to fight for it over 100 years. This fact has been swept under the rug and isn’t talked about much in history lessons. This is so typical of women’s history, which is so often untold,” she observed. “I made this movie because I wanted to honor all the women who fought for so long and so hard. And by looking back at history, I also found an opportunity to show what still has to be done in order to achieve gender equality.”
The film made its North American premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, where it received one of the fest’s Audience Awards, which includes $10,000. Volpe also won Tribeca’s Nora Ephron Prize, and Leuenberger was named Best Actress in the International Narrative Feature Competition.
“The Divine Order” opens at New York’s Film Forum on October 27 with a national rollout to follow.
Last year just one woman-directed film earned a nod in the best foreign-language film category: Maren Ade’s Cannes sensation “Toni Erdmann.”