Miriam Toews creates a fictional dialogue between the women of the colony about what has occurred, and like the book, much of the film is set entirely in a barn where the women have gathered to discuss whether they should do nothing, stay and fight, or flee. Their accounts were dismissed as the ‘wild female imagination’ and were told that it was the devil punishing them, until one night one of the men is caught in the act. The women and girls would wake up knowing something terrible had occurred but not knowing exactly what had happened to them. The men would feed an animal anaesthetic through their windows in the middle of the night to ensure they would not wake whilst they were raped and assaulted.
What occurred between this period was the rape and assault of over a hundred women and girls by the hands of the men in the colony, the youngest victim being only 4 years old. Toews’ book, released in 2019, is an imagined response to the very real events that took place between 20 in a remote and isolated Mennonite colony in America. Sarah Polley, who has previously given us thoughtful and introspective gems with the likes of Take This Waltz starring Michelle Williams and her biographical documentary Stories We Tell that beautifully inspects her own familial life, has returned to the screen with her eagerly anticipated adaptation of Miriam Toews’ book, Women Talking. Women Talking comes to a deeply moving resolution, but it also knows that the conversation is just getting started.Photo credit: Michael Gibson © 2022 Orion Releasing LLC.
You may disagree with that conclusion, and I suspect that on some level, Polley wants you to. What distinguishes this survival story from so many others is that, even as it acknowledges the abusive, patriarchal power structure in this religious colony, it still takes seriously the question of spiritual belief: It's the women's faith in God that ultimately empowers them to imagine a better, fairer way of life. There's obvious contemporary resonance to a story about holding male abusers accountable, though it would be reductive to describe Women Talking as a Mennonite #MeToo drama, as some have. As the idea of leaving gains momentum, the debate keeps intensifying: How will they survive in the outside world? Should they bring their young sons with them? Will their departure keep them from fulfilling their duty to forgive the men - or is it only by leaving that they can even consider forgiveness? Movie Reviews In 'Women Talking,' survivors must decide: Do nothing, stay and fight, or leave?Īugust is in love with Ona and wants to look after her and her unborn child, but she gently refuses: Whatever the women are going to do, they have to do it together and on their own.
0 kommentar(er)
