52 Films by Women Vol 3. 14. LIFE GUIDANCE (Director: Ruth Mader)
Life Guidance is a foray into near-future territory from Austrian co-writer-director Ruth Mader. In it, citizens and families living in relative comfort are expected to strive to be optimal. Performance rather than moral well-being is what counts. Perhaps it is better described as being set in a parallel society, significantly one without computers or social media or even advertising. It depicts a way of living that might have been culled from George Orwell’s novel 1984 , or dreamed up by Franz Kafka, though one where is there is little talk of the outside world, religion or cultural difference. It is as if Mader imagined a world in which Nazism or white supremacy had won and is no longer a talking point or rallying cry. In so far as there is a sense of the world outside, it is in commodities, whether investments should be embraced or discouraged. In this alternative world, there is no police. If citizens or families diverge from accepted performance or attitudinal levels, a private a...