The Amish Dilemma

The Amish are one of the most surprising communities in the United States. Living as they did in the 17^th century, they have no electricity or running water and travel by horse-drawn carriage. Mostly farmers, they lead an austere existence in near autarky. For them, only the word of the Lord counts, and they follow the biblical principles to the letter, inspired by their founder, Jacob Amman.

 

How can they live between an ancestral ideology and a civilization of consumption pushed to the extreme? What does it mean, in the 21^st century, to live according to 400-year-old rules?

 

This film offers a rare immersion in a community reputed to be the most closed in the world, in a frozen world where the old remains the absolute reference in the face of a modernity judged to be "vitiated". Three generations of Amish agreed to tell their stories after months of reflection and debate with their pastors! They are among the most conservative. Their words are rare.

 

Beyond the simple cleavage between the archaic way of life and the modern world, this documentary also raises other issues such as the notion of individual freedom, belonging to a minority, the questioning of an economic and social model and of course, the place of women.