Sarah Polley has never been a filmmaker to adhere to formula. In the former-actor’s film directing career to date – Away From Her, Take This Waltz, the documentary Stories We Tell – there’s no set style guide or subject matter that she sticks to. But there are common themes, feminist underpinnings, and, frankly, important things to say.
So while Women Talking is another change of pace – it’s likely very different to any film you’ve seen before – it still feels very much like a Sarah Polley film. Adapted from Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel of the same name (which itself was loosely inspired by real events in Bolivia in 2010), Women Talking concerns a group of women from a Mennonite community who have gathered in a hayloft to discuss their future. After uncovering disgraceful abuse by the colony’s men (all of which occurs offscreen), this collective are considering their options against a ticking clock: said men return from the city in 24 hours.
Three generations from three families are there to thrash things out. Leave? Stay and fight? Or stay and accept their circumstances as they are. Presented in a desaturated, notquiteblack-and-white palette, foregrounds these intense conversations, and lets them run at length, in powerful detail. And there’s an incredible assortment of actors tackling the dialogue and interrogating the various options. Among the key cast are Rooney Mara, as Ona, who is pregnant; Claire Foy as the fiercely pro stay-and-fight Salome; Jessie Buckley as Mariche, who fears what might happen if they stay. Frances McDormand (who also produces) features in a pivotal supporting role. Amid the women is August (Ben Whishaw),
