Ruthless Times - Songs of Care is a documentary film with choral tableau vivant scenes juxtaposed with documentary episodes, capturing the current crisis in the Finnish elderly care sector. The care-workers’ anonymous testimonies have been composed into choral songs. Retirees and elderly citizens sing impudent songs playing with the economic jargon of our time, making visible the absurdity of the bureaucratic language that has penetrated every aspect of human life. 

The film follows, for example, retirees of a small municipality in Eastern Finland as they witness the privatization of their local elderly care services and care workers as they cope in the midst of the digitalization of care, with robots roaming the halls of care homes and nurses being relegated to remote-care call centers. The main protagonist is Tiina, a care worker who was one of first to bring up the malpractices occurring in the elderly care sector in Finland, and who was subsequently black listed and received personal threats. 

With its dark humor, and at times grim but poignant moments, the film portrays the mismatch between the ethical and economical foundations of care work.

Original title: Armotonta menoa - Hoivatyön lauluja