Movie review of Women Talking: Amazing , sad and shocking story

Women Talking is based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Canadian writer Miriam Toews. Photo / Supplied

Women Talking (PG-13, 104 mins)

Directed by Sarah Polley

The 2019 novel Women Talking by revered Canadian writer Miriam Toews is “amazing, sad and shocking”, according to Margaret Atwood.

Who better to comment on a story about surviving sexual abuse in a remote religious colony than the author of The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)?

Women Talking is very loosely based on the 2005 story of women and girls in a remote Bolivian Mennonite farming community who were drugged with veterinary anaesthetic and raped by their men.

As in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (1953), the story of the Salem witch trials, questions were asked: Was it the devil’s work or was it just “wild female imagination”, to quote the opening line of Women Talking.

Miriam Toews, who has a Mennonite past, upset some Mennonites with her version of the Bolivian story. One, on a heritage cruise to Ukraine, whence came many of the world’s Mennonites, claimed in the New Yorker of March 18, 2019, that “Miriam Toews tells lies!” However, it’s not at all clear that the community in the film is actually Mennonite. They could be members of any patriarchal sect, including the Amish, or even the people of Gloriavale.

When most of the community’s women wake up bruised and battered, bleeding, many soon discovering they are pregnant, it’s clear from fleeting flashbacks that they have been drugged and raped.

When the community’s men are arrested and moved to the nearest courthouse, the illiterate, unworldly but courageous women meet in a hayloft, the film’s main setting, where they use a well thought-out process to solve the problem of how to keep themselves and their children safe if the men are let out. They reach their decision, only after challenging each other, sometimes extremely fiercely.

Will they stay and forgive the men, will they stay and fight, or will they leave? Frances McDormand’s Scarface Janz wants to forgive and stay, while Judith Ivey’s Agata ponders, “Perhaps forgiveness can … be confused with permission.”

“Is forgiveness that is forced upon us true forgiveness?” asks serene Ona (Rooney Mara). But, contemplating leaving, Jessie Buckley’s Mariche screams, “How will we be forgiven, if not by the elders whom we have disobeyed?” Salome (Claire Foy), simmering with anger, would prefer to burn forever in hell before she’d allow another man to “satisfy his violent urges with the body of her 4-year-old child”.

Director Sarah Polley co-wrote the script of Women Talking, with Miriam Toews, deservedly winning the 2023 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

August (Ben Whishaw) is the film’s only male character. A teacher whose mother has taken her own life after suffering abuse, he loves Ona. With pathos and devotion, he records the debate.

Casting is outstanding. Luc Montpellier’s cinematography and Queta Albert’s costumes are impressive, while Hildur Guðnadóttir’s wistful score suits perfectly. It’s a story that transcends time and place. Whether it’s true or not is irrelevant. Women Talking is a terrifically powerful film.

Highly recommended

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The first person to bring an image or hardcopy of this review to Starlight cinema Taupo qualifies for a free ticket to Women Talking.