What if women ruled the world?
The clock is ticking.
Part of the Antenna Documentary Film Festival, TWO MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT is a totally gripping, mesmerising work that asks lots of major questions about peace, power and gender politics. It is compelling, tense and rather bleak, superbly acted and photographed. The film blends recordings made in 2017 and 2018 of public performances in Aarhus, Berlin and Philadelphia. Very briefly a couple of times we catch glimpses of the audience looming in the shadows.
Directed by Yael Bartana, we see a strong female government of a fictional country which must decide what to do about a looming nuclear threat from a foreign nation, that is led by domineering President Twittler a man obsessed with the size of his rocket, who appears bent on proving to the world that his ‘big red button‘ really is functional.
The play is set in a democratic ‘ Peace Room’ , an allusion to the ‘War Room’ in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove. The set is cold and black with a huge round table and a large overhead rig, as well. The atmosphere is mostly tense but there is some witty humour as well.. For example Twittler is described as ‘an unqualified, narcissistic, pussy-grabbing megalomaniac’. The women are fighting the idea that power is hyper-masculinity and that in regards to international affairs women need to be included .
The five female representatives of a powerful nation are played by actors and they brainstorm with real-life specialists; defence advisers, defence advisers, human rights workers, lawyers, military personnel, peace activists and politicians. One side declares that disarmament is the only way to build trust and ensure peace. The alternative side however questions how secure or believable that would look.
The women’s deliberation encompasses such topics as the global emergencies with security, inequality, war, climate change, pernicious overbearing masculinity and the threat of nuclear war being major issues. LGBTI rights get a brief mention and there is also a big discussion of gender roles as the women are served by hunky topless waiters. This makes some of the women feel awkward and they ask are the waiters comfortable with being topless? The film also asks what does it mean to be a great power or superpower without nuclear weapons? Who gets to write history? Who gets to write the rules?
Should we be ready to die for our values and beliefs? What kind of society do we want to live in and do we need to change things and if so how?
We see Madame President, brilliantly played by Olwen Fouere , remember participating in a peace march when she was younger, where guns were buried – this is shot in black and white .She has to decide whether to push her red button or not …
At the moment in our real world the Doomsday Clock is set at 100 seconds to midnight.
What would you do?
Running time 47 minutes .
Two minutes to Midnight screens as part of the Antenna Documentary Film Festival 4 and 12 February 2022.
https://tix.antennafestival.org/Events/Two-Minutes-to-Midnight/Fri-Feb-4-2022-19-00
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