📽️ Film Club #3: Women Talking
Faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love
Where I come from, where your mother comes from, we didn’t talk about our bodies. So when something like this happened, there was no language for it. And without language for it, there was a gaping silence. And in that gaping silence was the real horror.
~ Autje, Women Talking, 2022
Our film for the month of June is Women Talking — written for the screen and directed by Sarah Polley, based off a novel by Miriam Toews, produced by Frances McDormand, and starring Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, and Sheila McCarthy. Ben Whishaw plays the lovely and lone supporting man, and Frances McDormand appears on screen in a small role as well.
A stacked cast and crew of leading ladies, if there ever was one! Truly some of the best of the best: I love following Foy, Buckley, and McDormand and I try to see as much of their work as I can. I’ve also loved much of what Ben Whishaw has done (particularly A Very English Scandal), and its heartening to see him play such a kind, humble, emotionally intelligent man here. Women Talking won Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for Best Picture at the 2023 Academy Awards.
Like last month’s pick, Places in the Heart, our film one once again takes place in a rural setting. This time, though, it’s an isolated and strict Mennonite community, set in the current day. You might not know that though without knowing what Women Talking is based on, except for the plastic pitcher sitting on a table in one scene toward the end of the movie.
The book, by the same name, is based off real events that took place in a remote Mennonite colony in Bolivia. Between 2005 and 2009, over one hundred women woke up to find they had been drugged and raped in the night. The men told them it was demons. In the fictionalized version of this story, the women know that it is not demons, but their own husbands and brothers and friends committing acts of violence against them. And they must decide what to do about it.
This stunning film made me cry, and think about what’s most important in life: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). One might think that these women would rage against God and deconstruct their faith, as many a Christian has done in the recent years upon learning about the evil committed by men who were supposed to be leaders of the faith but abused their power. But it’s because of their faith, not in spite of it, that they make their decision.
Three generations of women sit in the hayloft of a barn and talk. They cry, they rage, they laugh, and they hold each other. They recite scripture and sing hymns together. It’s their shared love of each other and of God that moves them to action. God is not against them; He is with them and for them.
I hope you’ll watch this moving portrayal of women wrestling with what it means to be good wives, mothers, sisters, friends, and followers of their God in the face of great evil and trauma. This is art for your heart, soul, and mind — watch it once, watch it twice (there is a lot of dialogue), ponder it, talk about it with your family and friends. We’ll be back at the end of the month with a podcast conversation about it!
Women Talking
Release date: 2022
Run time: 1 hour 44 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Where to watch: Prime Video
Synopsis:
The women of a remote Mennonite colony in the present day discover that their men have been drugging and raping them in the night. The men leave to seek safety and raise bail money to free the rapists. The women of the colony have 24 hours to decide what to do before the men come back: do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. Their very salvation may be at stake, as the elders of their religious community have told them they will not enter the kingdom of heaven if they do not forgive. But what does forgiveness mean in this case?
In the face of uncertainty and fear, three generations of women wrestle with the moral values and religious principles they adhere to and the implications of the three options that are before them. While their circumstances are bleak and dire, they also hold so much hope for the future — a future that lies with their children and one that is within their power to mold, shape, change.
Interspersed with scenes of great pain (women waking up to blood on their nightgowns, their bedsheets) and scenes of great beauty (their innocent and happy children playing in the fields, backlit with beams of sunlight), the film reads like a play. The women sit in one room and debate, following the logical progression and consequences of the three options. Which action will they choose? And what would you do, if in their place?
Note: while rated PG-13 for mature themes, there are no depictions of the rapes, only brief scenes of the aftermath of the violence. If you have adolescents, use your discretion whether or not to show them this film.
Some questions to think about while you watch:
How does the voiceover narration add perspective to the immediacy of the 24 hour plot?
Why does the cinematographer make the choices he did, such as the extreme wide lens angle? What about the coloration of the film? How does this add to your experience of the story, or your reading of it?
Why does the film open with the line “what follows is an act of female imagination”? How does this inform your viewing? What are the various meanings of this phrase in context of the film and real life?
What do you make of Frances McDormand’s character? Why does she choose what she does? What does she represent?
How do the three families represent the three options? What changes, or doesn’t change, their minds?
Would you categorize this as a feminist film? Why or why not?
Would you call this a “faith” film? Why or why not?
If you have any other questions or comments to add, let us know! We’d love to share your questions and thoughts in our podcast.
Got a movie suggestion for Film Club? Our 2024 list is filling up, but we’d love to hear your recommendations! Write us with your film club pick and why you chose it! Remember, the only criterion is: it must feature a leading lady!
I watched this yesterday! Wow, what an incredible film. This has been on my list for a while but your post helped me commit. Thanks for the recommendation!