The Confederation Centre of the Arts and City Cinema Present: Women Talking

14A, mature content.
Dir: Sarah Polley, US, 2023, 104 min.
Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Ben Whishaw, Frances McDormand, Sheila McCarthy.
Academy Award Winner, Best Adapted Screenplay.

Author Miriam Toews will be presenting the 2025 Symons Lecture at Confederation Centre of the Arts on October 3.

“This is the kind of cinema that endures… For the past few years, the women in this isolated religious community have been drugged and assaulted in their sleep… It actually happened — Miriam Toews wrote a novel about it in 2018, on which this film is based… The women meet in a hayloft to talk about what to do: nothing, stay and fight, or leave… The subject matter is explosive. But Polley’s film is more like a hymn or a prayer, a gentle meditation on forgiveness, survival and how to make a better world… The trauma shows on the women’s bodies in different ways… And in the same way that the physical impact differs, so do each of these women in their responses… Salome has tried to kill one of the men. Ona is left with profound questions (if the women stay and fight, what are they fighting for?), while Mariche, whose husband is an abuser, doesn’t want to make a fuss. Lest it all sound too grim, Women Talking is actually very warm, with moments of humour and tenderness beaming through it… The women laugh, sing together and sometimes disagree… The journey to their trepidatious decision is propulsive and gripping… For those who want to listen—and those who need to hear it – this is a film full of hope.” —Jessie Thompson, The Independent