German Stefan Wolf produced a movie showing 10 different villages and communities throughout Europe who dedicated their life to a sustainable lifestyle. Currently touring through Taiwan, after the film had been translated into Mandarin Chinese, it received quite a positive response from the Taiwanese audience.

But as a European the film had another impression on me. While people who try to live a sustainable and self sufficient lifestyle would usually get a positive response, about what they do, from the public, the film is somehow feeding prejudices. As it can be seen in the trailer there are people with long hair, unshaved, sitting together in groups with colorful clothes, singing songs by camp fire. It is what we imagine about the early years of the green parties in Europe. A kind of super natural lifestyle, which in some way, has not much to do with the lifestyle of the majority of society. There are several scenes which confirm this view, even the mentioning of “spiritualities” next to religions.

I mean, there are some good ideas about organization and sustainability, that could maybe be also be used outside of these communities, but a big part of them is the voluntary participation and similar views about life. This is not the case in the general society and therefore not applicable. Moreover, the film seemed to have a high focus on the visions of the founder and people itself rather than their means to live sustainably.

I, therefore, can not imagine this film receiving much attention in Europe. Taiwanese on the other hand, with their cultural background, seemed quite fond of the idea of living in such communities. Why, I’m not sure, though I feel that it has something to do with the fact that traditions still play an important role. For example, there are people believing in ghosts and of course there are things as traditional Chinese medicine.

But even here I think such communities are only an option for a few likeminded and not for general population.

 

http://www.newwe.info/