MOTHER SUPERIOR // MATER SUPERIOR

MOTHER SUPERIOR (German: MATER SUPERIOR, formerly DIE PFÖRTNERIN) // AT 2022 (71 min) // Horror-Fantasy-Thriller

SYNOPSIS: 1975, Rosenkreuz Manor. Sigrun starts a new position with the eccentric Baroness Heidenreich. A shared longing binds the two women together: the old lady’s memory contains the secret to Sigrun's true identity; the nurse’s life force holds the key to the future for the Baroness. On the path to self-discovery, Sigrun is confronted with the sinister world of "völkisch" occultism, opening an unearthly abyss in which every moral and principle is tested.

Teaser

DIRECTOR STATEMENT:

My new film deals with the disturbing relationship between ethnic nationalism and esotericism. The far right has always had an odd obsession with paganism and the occult. Lately, there is a startling spread of anthroposophical and environmental movements with racist/facist leanings, such as “QAnon”-affiliated New Agers or the Russian/German “Anastasia” settlers.

What I find so worrying about these trends, is that they pick up on noble values and connect them to delusive ideologies of inequality. Seeming liberal, spiritual and harmless, they infiltrate communities and confuse people’s moral compasses.

During my research, I came across an even more peculiar paradox: the “völkisch” (folkish) feminists of the early 20th century, who accused Judaism and Christianity for the disappearance of the gender-equal golden age. They advocated the “supremacy of the Aryan race” from the perspective of the mother, the governess, the mystic.

Gods, genes and gender have been postulated as a legitimation of power ever since and continue to propel and divide society. Frustration about suffering linked with desire for higher meaning makes fertile ground for conspiracy theories, especially during periods of societal crisis.