In 2010, the women and girls of an unnamed, isolated Mennonite colony discover that the men have been using livestock tranquilizer to subdue and rape them. The attackers are arrested and imprisoned in a nearby city. Most of the men of the colony travel to oversee the bail, leaving the women by themselves for two days to determine how they will proceed. They hold a plebiscite to decide whether to stay and do nothing, stay and fight, or leave.
The vote is tied between staying and fighting, and leaving. Eleven of the colony's women band together at a hayloft to come to a final decision, though Scarface, a "do-nothing" woman, leaves the meeting after becoming disillusioned with the discussion, taking her hesitant daughter Anna and resistant granddaughter Helena with her. August, the colony's schoolteacher and one of two remaining men, joins the women to record the meeting, as none of the women were taught to read or write. The second man is Melvin, a transgender man who after being raped does not speak, except to the young children. Therefore, he is left in charge of watching over them and warning the women of any outside developments.
Salome, just back from a trip to gather antibiotics for her little daughter who was assaulted, remains adamant about staying and fighting, an opinion shared by Mejal. Ona, who is pregnant after being raped, also suggests that they stay and, after winning the fight, create a new set of rules for the colony that would give the women equality. Mariche, Greta's daughter and Autje's mother, disagrees, believing that forgiveness is the only viable option. To defuse the conflict, Ona suggests that August create one document stating the pros and cons of leaving, and another document doing the same for staying.
When the women are counted for the 2010 census, they learn that Klaas, Mariche's abusive husband, will return that evening to collect more bail money. The meeting resumes. Ona and Mejal change their minds in favor of leaving. Salome remains insistent upon fighting, angrily confessing that she would rather kill the men than put her daughter in further harm's way. However, she changes her opinion after being reminded by Agata, her mother as well as Ona's, of the principles of their faith. The only remaining unconvinced member is Mariche. An argument ensues between her and the rest of the women; it is revealed that she forgave her husband's abuse at Greta's urging. After Greta apologizes, Mariche agrees to leave.
Their reasons for leaving are transcribed by August: to ensure the safety of their children, to be steadfast in their faith, and to have freedom of thought. They decide to try to take boys aged fifteen years and younger with them, but will not force any boy over age twelve. They prepare to leave at sunrise, concealing their plans from Klaas. August, at Ona's behest, posts the documents stating the pros and cons of leaving and staying on the walls as an "artifact" of the women's time in the colony. He also declares his love to Ona and gives her a map for the women to use.
Before they can leave, Melvin tells Salome that her teenage son Aaron has fled and hidden. He is found, but cannot be convinced to leave in enough time. Salome, breaking the rules of their departure, tranquillizes Aaron, forcing him to leave with them. She reveals this only to August, who understands and does not question her. He asks her to look after Ona and reveals his intent to kill himself once the women are gone. She instead asks him to teach the boys properly to prevent any further violence and to give him purpose. Helena and Anna join the rest of the women, while Scarface and August watch on as they depart.
Hildur GuÃnadÃttir composed the film's score, with Skúli Sverrisson providing guitar solos. The soundtrack was among the inaugural titles released through Universal Music Group's label Mercury Classics Soundtrack & Score, which was released this film's soundtrack digitally on December 23, 2022, the same day as the start of the film's limited theatrical release. It was released on physical CD later that month. The score cue "Speak Up," which served as the basis for the film's trailer music, was released digitally on November 4, 2022.[17][18]
The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2022.[20] It also screened at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2022, followed by screenings at the 60th New York Film Festival on October 10, 2022 and at the 2022 AFI Fest on November 5, 2022.[5] It began its limited theatrical release in the United States and Canada on December 23, 2022 by Orion Pictures (through United Artists Releasing), with a wide expansion on January 27, 2023. It was originally scheduled for a limited release on December 2, 2022,[21] but was moved to December 23 to avoid competition with Avatar: The Way of Water.[6]
Polley received the Telluride Film Festival Silver Medallion tribute award.[31] Composer Hildur GuÃnadÃttir received a tribute award at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.[32] At the 95th Academy Awards the film was nominated for Best Picture and Polley won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay.[33] It was also nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Original Score at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, Best Ensemble Cast of a Motion Picture at the 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards, and received 6 nominations at the 28th Critics' Choice Awards, including Best Picture.
Canadian author Miriam Toews, who grew up in a small Mennonite community in Manitoba, had a strong empathetic response to this story. "I could have been one of [those women]," she said in an interview. Her resulting book, 2018's Women Talking, is not so much a recounting of those events, but an imaginative response to them. In her fictionalized version, all the men of the community head to town to put up bail for their arrested brethren. The women meet in the barn and discuss their options, boiled down to three: 1.) Do nothing 2.) Stay and fight 3.) Leave the community.
So, it's "women talking," yes, but it's women talking as told by a man (as created by a novelist, who happens to be a woman). The layers here are either problematic or fascinating, depending on your perspective. Sarah Polley's film adaptation removes a couple of layers of this artifice: August (Ben Whishaw) is present, scribbling away on the periphery, but he is not the narrator, although August's crush on the dreamy optimist Ona (Rooney Mara) is still there. The "women talking" move front and center. Polley's adaptation doesn't quite deal with the ramifications of this point-of-view shift. August can't get into their interior lives, what it's like inside their hearts, so he just writes what they say and what they do, trying not to editorialize. Some of that imposed distance still remains in the adaptation.
The circumstances of the attacks that inspired Women Talking are nightmarish. For years, men in the Manitoba Colony used an anesthetic initially made for cattle to render girls and women unconscious and rape them. In 2009, one woman caught two of the attackers when she woke up during an assault. Initially, the men accused were punished by their own people, but they were eventually handed over to Bolivian police. Two years later, the case went to trial, where seven of the eight defendants were found guilty, while a ninth evaded capture.
August recognizes his place as an outlier, and tries to editorialize as little as possible, but as someone who has experienced what exists beyond the farmlands, he serves as something like an intermediary who can contextualize the discussions for the reader. The arguments he details are long and often circular, but in the process, the women can begin to articulate their own desires as well as the injustices they have suffered.
Based on the best-selling novel by Miriam Toews, Women Talking follows a group of women in an isolated religious colony as they struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of sexual assaults committed by the colony's men. Directed by Sarah Polley and starring Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, and Claire Foy.
A group decision is never easy. In Captain America: Civil War, the decision to abide by or protest the Sokovia Accords tore the Avengers in half. The Hunger Games victors couldn't decide how best to attack the Capitol and their nemesis, President Snow, and the resulting mixed intentions led to several major deaths. Sarah Polley's upcoming film, Women Talking, tells the story of women in a small Mennonite community that must decide what to do when heinous crimes are committed against them.
The Mennonites are a group of people that initially arose out of the Anabaptists, a reform movement in the sixteenth century. Like other religious convent and community-based groups, Mennonites live a lifestyle accordant to strict rules: baptism of believers, shunning of the excommunicated, and overall, a life withdrawn from society. Mennonite groups are regarded as tightly-knit, highly disciplined, and until the twentieth century, outcasts from most society. In most cases, religious beliefs, social and familial roles, and the prevailing culture are all wrapped into one; Women Talking shows how one decision unravels the identity of the Mennonite women.
38c6e68cf9