Based on the book by Miriam Toews, writer/director Sarah Polley's
Women Talking gathers an all-star cast to tell the story of
the women of an isolated religious commune grappling with their faith in
the aftermath of a violent incident.
The film stars Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw
and Frances McDormand.
"In Women Talking, a group of women, many of whom disagree on essential things, have a
conversation to figure out how they might move forward together to build a
better world for themselves and their children," says Polley. "Though the backstory behind the events in Women Talking is
violent, the film is not. We never see the violence that the women have
experienced. We see only short glimpses of the aftermath. Instead, we watch
a community of women come together as they must decide, in a very short
space of time, what their collective response will be. When I read Miriam Toews’ book, it sunk deep into me, raising questions and
thoughts about the world I live in that I had never articulated. Questions
about forgiveness, faith, systems of power, trauma, healing, culpability,
community, and self-determination. It also left me bewilderingly
hopeful. I imagined this film in the realm of a fable. While the story in the film
is specific to a small religious community, I felt that it needed a large
canvas, an epic scope through which to reflect the enormity and universality
of the questions raised in the film. To this end, it felt imperative that
the visual language of the film breathe and expand. I wanted to feel in
every frame the endless potential and possibility contained in a
conversation about how to remake a broken world."
Women Talking is in UK/ROI cinemas February 2023.
Check out the trailer and a behind the scenes featurette below.
The official synopsis reads:
In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling their reality with their faith.
