Set between Hong Kong, London and Frankfurt, this is the intimate portrait of five women working in the highest spheres of finance. Regularly stigmatised as “dragon-women”, they reveal the survival mechanisms they use and the personal battles they fight in this ultra-patriarchal professional field where they represent a tiny minority.
Stressed? Burnt out? You’re not alone! With black humour and biting irony, we get the incredible story of how modern working life became its own worst enemy – and what we can do to change it.
Burnout, endless meetings and colourful Post-It notes with empty marketing phrases have hijacked meaningful work. How did we get there? Based on a sabotage manual developed during World War II, John Webster’s wildly entertaining and deeply upsetting film demonstrates how modern work has become a monster that devours itself – and everyone else around it. Without losing sight of the system’s human toll, the film speaks directly to a current agenda about how and how much we should actually work. And fortunately for all of us, there actually is a solution. At the heart of the film, we sit in with a group of successful business people as they come together to share their stories of burning out – and how they got on in life. Most people will no doubt be able to relate to much of ‘The Happy Worker’, and have a good, much-needed laugh about how it got this far.
Francisca, Tobias, Sara, David and Frederic are students at the Swiss University of St. Gallen. Each from different backgrounds, they are studying for a degree that the Financial Times has dubbed the “best program in management worldwide.” They all have the same goal: to excel in a career prominently featuring money and power.
The director closely follows these young adults for seven years, from a headhunter interview to their individual successes and setbacks as consultants or entrepreneurs. He asks them about their dreams and ambitions, goes with them on vacations or out to dinner, visits their parents, spends time with them as they prepare for job interviews, and works overtime with them in a hotel room.
Crystal-clear editing tells five stories of five different people, each with their own uncertainties, euphoric moments, fears and heartbreak. Sadder and wiser, at the end of the film they look back on their initial enthusiasm and reflect on how much of it is left at this point in their lives. Through their uninhibited gaze, the audience gets a glimpse of a world that is familiar to only to a few.
源自：
https://festival.idfa.nl/en/film/2ef01ca7-b887-461e-b601-50f0b48fe7ac/the-driven-ones/
