Women Talking
Sarah Polley returns with an uncompromising drama in which a group of women discuss the endemic sexual violence within their Mennonite religious colony. Rooney Mara, Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley are among the excellent cast
Ghosts. Satan. Wild female imagination. Lying for attention. Some of these excuses for the endemic sexual violence that forms the backdrop for Women Talking are specific to the film's setting – a Mennonite religious colony – and others have evident contemporary resonance. The premise for Sarah Polley’s first feature in ten years is lucid in its simplicity: after discovering the perpetrators, a group of women gather in a barn to discuss whether to stay and fight for justice in the colony or to leave. August (a tender but sometimes overwrought Ben Whishaw) quietly takes minutes.
While the dialogue-heavy premise may lend itself to theatrical comparison, the principal strength of Women Talking is the exquisite performances from a stellar ensemble cast. The minutiae of their expressions reveal as much as their words, whether it's Jessie Buckley’s tightly coiled restraint as Mariche or Claire Foy’s staggering, bone-deep rage as Salome. The desaturated colour palette largely complements their performances, and draws you to the whites of Mariche’s eyes while hiding her daughter’s bruises. This doesn’t sanitise the violence – we know – but typifies Polley’s attentive, empathetic filmmaking.
This sensitivity allows the film to ask complex questions about sexual violence. Why do some people tolerate what others would escape? Are perpetrators of sexual violence victims of the societies they shape and inhabit? What can we take with us and what should be torn down? Like August, Sarah Polley is a believer. Fists can be used for celestial navigation, not violence, and a kinder world is possible.
Released 10 Feb by Universal; certificate 15