WOMEN TALKING
****
Director: Sarah Polley
Screenplay: Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews, based on Toews’ eponymous 2018 novel.
Principal cast:
Rooney Mara
Claire Foy
Jessie Buckley
Frances McDormand
Judith Ivey
Ben Whishaw
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 104 mins.
Australian release date: 16 February 2023.
With a slew of awards already in the bag and nominated for two Academy Awards in this year’s Oscars (Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay), Sarah Polley’s Women Talking is having a good year. It’s anybody’s guess if it will romp home in the Oscar race but it is up against some pretty stiff competition. Still, if there was an Academy Award for the best film about women, it would be a battle between Women Talking and Tár. As with the currently on-release Corsage, it is ‘an act of female imagination’ based on a real-life event, but this one took place in the Manitoba Colony, a Mennonite community, in Bolivia in 2010 and it’s an extraordinary story of terror, courage and resistance.
In the closed religious community, the women gradually become aware that they were being systematically raped by some of the men at night, who drugged them with cattle tranquilizer, assaulted and violated them, and then claimed that the assaults were committed by ghosts and devils or were merely the women’s imaginations. As the women put it, “They made us disbelieve ourselves.” When some of the culprits were arrested, the other men in the community accompanied the miscreants to arrange bail, leaving a group of 11 women alone for two days. They set up a meeting in a hayloft and commenced a discussion, a plebiscite, about how to deal with the situation. The main issues considered were keeping themselves and their children safe, remaining steadfast to their faith and being allowed to make their own decisions, thus they boiled down their choices to three: 1. Do nothing; 2. Stay and fight; or 3. Leave. Over the next 24 hours, the pros and cons of the debate flowed back and forth before a final decision was made.
In Women Talking, an incredibly strong ensemble cast that includes Francis McDormand (Scarface), Claire Foy (Salome), Judith Ivey (Agata), Jessie Buckley (Mariche), Rooney Mara (Ona), Sheila McCarthy (Greta) and Ben Whishaw (August), bring this unbelievable tale to fully-formed life. At first, you can’t help but think ‘how could this happen?’, but the actors make us understand that this is a group of people who have been thoroughly brainwashed by the male elders of the community. Even when presented with irrefutable evidence of criminal behaviour, some of them are reluctant to break with tradition, believing they will be denied ‘the kingdom of heaven.’ Whishaw’s August, who teaches the Mennonite boys, is the only male on-side with the women and he is asked to record the minutes of the meeting because females in the colony aren’t educated and none of them can read or write. He is willing to assist because he knows that time is short and the men will return soon and he urges them to reach a decision. He has another reason for helping them, too - he is in love with Ona.
Polley’s cerebral direction draws out enthralling performances from all the actors and Luc Montpellier’s cinematography increases the tension by draining the set of vibrant colours; the images are so washed out as to be almost black and white. Prolific Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score adds both depth and nuance to the proceedings. Women Talking is a film that radiates defiance while at times making you as frustrated as the protagonists, simmering with quiet rage, because there are no easy solutions for people enslaved by archaic beliefs perpetuated by the men who control their lives. It is, however, satisfying to watch as the women begin the difficult process of breaking the shackles on some of the things they had been instructed to believe and the behaviours they had been taught to accept.
Screenplay: Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews, based on Toews’ eponymous 2018 novel.
Principal cast:
Rooney Mara
Claire Foy
Jessie Buckley
Frances McDormand
Judith Ivey
Ben Whishaw
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 104 mins.
Australian release date: 16 February 2023.
With a slew of awards already in the bag and nominated for two Academy Awards in this year’s Oscars (Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay), Sarah Polley’s Women Talking is having a good year. It’s anybody’s guess if it will romp home in the Oscar race but it is up against some pretty stiff competition. Still, if there was an Academy Award for the best film about women, it would be a battle between Women Talking and Tár. As with the currently on-release Corsage, it is ‘an act of female imagination’ based on a real-life event, but this one took place in the Manitoba Colony, a Mennonite community, in Bolivia in 2010 and it’s an extraordinary story of terror, courage and resistance.
In the closed religious community, the women gradually become aware that they were being systematically raped by some of the men at night, who drugged them with cattle tranquilizer, assaulted and violated them, and then claimed that the assaults were committed by ghosts and devils or were merely the women’s imaginations. As the women put it, “They made us disbelieve ourselves.” When some of the culprits were arrested, the other men in the community accompanied the miscreants to arrange bail, leaving a group of 11 women alone for two days. They set up a meeting in a hayloft and commenced a discussion, a plebiscite, about how to deal with the situation. The main issues considered were keeping themselves and their children safe, remaining steadfast to their faith and being allowed to make their own decisions, thus they boiled down their choices to three: 1. Do nothing; 2. Stay and fight; or 3. Leave. Over the next 24 hours, the pros and cons of the debate flowed back and forth before a final decision was made.
In Women Talking, an incredibly strong ensemble cast that includes Francis McDormand (Scarface), Claire Foy (Salome), Judith Ivey (Agata), Jessie Buckley (Mariche), Rooney Mara (Ona), Sheila McCarthy (Greta) and Ben Whishaw (August), bring this unbelievable tale to fully-formed life. At first, you can’t help but think ‘how could this happen?’, but the actors make us understand that this is a group of people who have been thoroughly brainwashed by the male elders of the community. Even when presented with irrefutable evidence of criminal behaviour, some of them are reluctant to break with tradition, believing they will be denied ‘the kingdom of heaven.’ Whishaw’s August, who teaches the Mennonite boys, is the only male on-side with the women and he is asked to record the minutes of the meeting because females in the colony aren’t educated and none of them can read or write. He is willing to assist because he knows that time is short and the men will return soon and he urges them to reach a decision. He has another reason for helping them, too - he is in love with Ona.
Polley’s cerebral direction draws out enthralling performances from all the actors and Luc Montpellier’s cinematography increases the tension by draining the set of vibrant colours; the images are so washed out as to be almost black and white. Prolific Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score adds both depth and nuance to the proceedings. Women Talking is a film that radiates defiance while at times making you as frustrated as the protagonists, simmering with quiet rage, because there are no easy solutions for people enslaved by archaic beliefs perpetuated by the men who control their lives. It is, however, satisfying to watch as the women begin the difficult process of breaking the shackles on some of the things they had been instructed to believe and the behaviours they had been taught to accept.