The new indie sci-fi drama “Advantageous” tells the story of single mom Gwen Koh (Jacqueline Kim, who also co-wrote the feature) and her daughter Jules (Samantha Kim, no relation) trying to get by in a world that’s very much like ours. The movie is set in the near future, in a gleaming landscape of silvery skyscrapers and whirring hovercraft. The conflict that drives the film is hardly futuristic, though: Jules is admitted to a pricey prep school just as Gwen loses her job as the spokeswoman for the sinister-sounding Center for Advanced Health and Living.

The drama asks: What is she willing to do to “position” her daughter’s future? What happens when the difference between child-rearing and job training collapses?

The pair live in tumultuous times: A rebel group conducts daily bomb attacks, drinking water is expensive, young women are becoming infertile en masse, older women are pushed out of the labor market, children sleep in flowerbeds and do sex work in the park. But unlike heavier-handed political sci-fi films such as “Snowpiercer” or “The Hunger Games,” social conflict stays in the background. We see the politics through a successful but precarious mother’s eyes as she shields her child from whatever she can.

Because for Gwen, every social illness is a threat to her daughter’s future happiness, security and independence. Without her job, and with no financial safety net, Gwen knows she can’t provide Jules with the advantages she needs. So when the Center puts a flag on Gwen’s digital resume, she goes to her boss and offers to be the test subject for a dangerous new brain transplant procedure in order to stay employed.

In the wake of the Rachel Dolezal affair, commentators will no doubt glom onto Gwen’s transformation from a middle-aged east-Asian woman to a younger, ethnically ambiguous woman (Freya Adams) through a sketchy brain switch. However, the heart of “Advantageous” comes earlier in the series, by way of Jacqueline Kim’s amazing performance. As a single mom with no other source of support, Gwen is struggling to engage in what social scientists call “concerned cultivation” — parenting geared toward providing the child with every future advantage. What will happen to Jules if Gwen can’t afford the right prep school or summer camp isn’t exactly spelled out, but the drop out of the ruling class seems even steeper than it is now. No one talks about public school; it’s unclear if there is a government or welfare state at all.

The film succeeds as a social critique and a work of art because its audience never gets a clear look at the social conditions in which it takes place. For all we know, “Advantageous” could be set in a Hunger Games-like dystopia, with life inside the capital sealed off from beleaguered laboring districts, or in New York City five years from now. It doesn’t matter: For those in the top ranks of any of these societies, with more money than they can spend and more power than they can exercise, things will probably look pretty much the way they do now. The important thing going forward is to keep the money and the power. Gwen, unfortunately, has aged out.