What is this movie about?
The year is 2010, but the only sign of time is a modern SUV that has been carefully framed. Otherwise, the story develops outside of a specific time and place, because what is shown on screen has been lived through for centuries. The plot revolves around a small group of women living in a religious Mennonite colony. These and many other women in society have been victims of systematic rape: their husbands, brothers and neighbors drug them nightly with cow tranquilizers and then rape them.
It was not possible to immediately recognize the real villains: the men attributed the wounds and bruises of the victims to the intrigues of the devil. But one day the truth comes out, the police catch the culprit and the rest of the men chase after them to bail them out. Women have two days to decide: stay and fight or save themselves.
From Girls with the Dragon Tattoo by Rooney Mara and Claire Foy to The Seventh Seal by Frances McDormand until Bergman’s death, the cast has been great.
Why is it important to watch this movie?
Talking Women is based on the novel of the same name by Miriam Tows, based on a true story of violence in Bolivia. In the mid-2000s, more than a hundred women aged 3 to 65 were systematically sexualized by Mennonite men in their sleep. In fact, the title of the movie, “everything said is a figment of the women’s imagination,” is a reference to the real word that rapists incite their victims. Of course, this isn’t a nightmare or a sickly fantasy, it’s the real truth going on with a high-profile case (even a vet who provided men with an animal tranquilizer that they euthanized their victims for was convicted).
The timelessness and universality of the tragedy, which we mentioned above, is also reflected in the way the film narrates the mass trauma. If the first half hour of the film, shot in the confined space of a barn, is reminiscent of a judicial procedure in the spirit of “12 Angry Men” (here, too, about a dozen women are trying to establish the rule of law in a short time). time), then resembles rarer examples of the genre. For example, the Peruvian drama “Milk of Sorrow”, which won two awards at the Berlinale 2009.
In “Milk of Sorrow” lies the true story of hundreds of women raped by soldiers in Peru during the hostilities of 1980-1992. The film’s director, Claudia Llosa, not only examines the general trauma, but also tries to see the consequences. The main character is Fausta, a young girl who is the daughter of a raped woman. The girl has been chained all her life by fear, the reasons for which she tries to understand. Llosa tried to show how children fed with the milk of traumatized women carry this trauma within themselves.
In the movie “Women Talk”, the heroines also try to evaluate the situation from a distant perspective. Can we save ourselves and our girls if we stay? If we leave, is it worth taking our sons with us or are they infected with the virus of violence? At one point, the heroine of Mary directly asks: “Love, absence of love, the end of love, the need for love why does violence lead?”
In search of a solution, the heroines resort to divine and human arguments: they quote the Bible and remember that with each morning awakening, new bruises and wounds are found on the body and parched ground in the soul.
Why is this movie hard to watch?
We have to admit right away that “Women Speak” is a movie that, while certainly important, was not intended for a wide audience. The picture of the film is almost devoid of light and colors – the world of women lost them with the advent of evil. And the text looks like a viscous resin: in some places it stretches for a long time and tastes very bitter.
Like the female protagonist of last year’s hit series Park Chan-wook, the women here painfully and for a long time accepted their decision to leave. But we must pay tribute to Polly – she forgives the audience not by the violent process, but only by showing its dire consequences (which, of course, does not facilitate).
“Talking Women” received two nominations for “Oscar” in the prestigious categories: “Best Picture” and “Best Adapted Screenplay”. But it’s unlikely to win an award – the film academics’ evaluation (still a predominantly male organization) seems more like an act of consolation than a major victory bid.
Still, the film is worth watching and listening to the stories of these women. But with an important disclaimer: You should dive into history by calculating only your strengths. Because this is undoubtedly a great act of female courage, but it requires no less spectator endurance in response.