*Content warning for heavy discussion of rape and assault.
Nominated for an Academy Award, Women Talking is directed by Sarah Polley and based on the book by Miriam Toews. The film centres on a group of Mennonite women who have been finding themselves repeatedly raped in their sleep by the men in their colony over many years. One of them is caught in the act one day and sent to jail. The rest of the men follow in order to bail him out, with some conditions.
Women Talking is based on a true story, but only up to what the men did. In this film, the women must forgive the men in order to enter the gates of heaven. So while the men are gone the women must come to the decision of what to do about their circumstances: Nothing, Fight, or Leave.
Some Thoughts:
Much of the film centres on their discussion. Shot in a barn, a handful of the women and girls sit and talk, while an exiled man has returned to the colony and takes their minutes. The voices are varied. The stories are similar, but their interpretations are not. One woman is pregnant. A few are girls. This film is dark, blatant and honest. Some of the discussions are ones we have in our own lives, and some are ones we haven’t.
Women Talking is worth watching for those of us who think of ourselves as feminist. It’s difficult, yes, and it is brutal. And yet, there’s a vulnerability we rarely see discussed openly in cinema, a truth we don’t encounter, like the rage that women hold when they are violated. And the pain, the trauma, and the care for each other. On the other end, we have the blaming of each other, the self-centredness, the shame.
The actors in Women Talking compliment each other well. The lighting, a muted blue over much of everything sets a sombre tone, but not hopeless. There’s a nod to the film Twelve Angry Men, which is both in amazing contrast and in similarity. These are indeed angry women, but not all. Some are in fact coming with forgiveness and some with fear or sorrow.
