Academy Award-nominated writer-director Sarah Polley’s fearless adaptation of Miriam Toews’ acclaimed novel has brought in further major nominations this award season with two Oscars nods (including best picture) on top of its Golden Globes nominations including Best Screenplay of a Motion Picture and Original Score for Academy Award winner composer Hildur Guðnadóttir. After receiving rapturous reviews from critics and a certified fresh Rotten Tomatoes score of 91%, the drama successfully examines its harrowing subject matter of patriarchal oppression with a nuanced understanding that resonates with its viewers.
The film grants us access to a tight-knit, cloistered religious colony in which women struggle to recover from an epidemic of abuse. Featuring riveting, emotionally complex performances from a stunning ensemble that includes Oscar nominees Rooney Mara and Jessie Buckley and Oscar winner Frances McDormand, Women Talking is a drama of harrowing revelations, fraught alliances, and the search for grace.
Reeling from multiple counts of sexual abuse, newly uncovered within their Mennonite colony, a group of women gather in a hayloft to discuss how to respond. While the men are away, the women narrow their options down to three: do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. Some fear that any act of defiance will jeopardize their entry into heaven, while others believe they cannot survive without husbands and sons. Some are willing to take any measures to escape the terror of their domestic lives and insist that “the truth is stronger than the rules.”
With her first feature in almost a decade, Polley showcases her unmatched skills as both a screenwriter and a director. The film is at once ferocious in its critique of patriarchal oppression — a critique that clearly extends to our broader, secular culture — while respectful of the beliefs and traditions in which its characters were raised. Though it is suffused with the pain of trauma, a stubborn sense of wonder and quiet joy in community permeate the film. Women Talking ushers us through a journey of rage, grief, wisdom, and hope through to a triumphant, most gratifying conclusion.
Despite her triumph in producing the powerful awards favourite, Polley was initially weary of taking on the project. After a friend suggested she adapt the novel, the Toronto filmmaker originally resisted making the idea, due to the traumatic nature of the story and it being loosely based on a Mennonite colony in Bolivia where seven men were put on trial after being accused of drugging and raping women in their homes between 2005 and 2009.
Hearing this, she thought ‘I don’t want to make that movie,’ but was ultimately swayed upon reading the novel and concluding that what was really powerful to her was ‘the impact that [the violence] has on these women and how they process the trauma, how they move through it in community and move forward”. Polley says, “I didn’t quite understand how it could be made into a film, but I got really curious about trying to figure that out.”
The film is co-produced by Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, and Frances McDormand, who also produced and starred in Best Picture winner Nomadland and has a small part in the film.
Witness the moving and timely story in cinemas on February 16, 2023.
