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Women Talking film "Ellas hablando" is a favorite for the Oscars and is based on the case of multiple rapes in the Manitoba colony, Santa Cruz. It is an adaptation of the Miriam Toews novel of the same name that recounts these serious events that shocked the country and made world news.
Women Talking between 2005 and 2009, 100 women and girls were raped in the Manitoba Mennonite colony by men and boys from the same community, often their relatives. "They woke up in the morning sore and with a feeling of drowsiness, with their bodies bruised and bleeding," he explains in the prologue to Ellas hablan.
In 2011, the court sentenced seven of the nine defendants to 25 years in prison in Palmasola for aggravated rape. The eighth implicated received an eight-year sentence and was recaptured in 2022 after fleeing.
Renowned Oscar-nominated actress Rooney Mara has built a solid career in Hollywood thanks to her work in award-winning films such as Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley, David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Todd Haynes' Carol. However, the actress explained that she was about to abandon her career after participating in A Nightmare on Elm Street in 2010.
During a talk on the LaunchLeft podcast, Rooney Mara talked about her reasons for almost abandoning her career and how her participation in the famous horror movie made her more selective in future projects.
Rooney Mara played Nancy in the 2010 remake of Wes Craven's original that retold the story of Freddy Krueger, a serial killer with burnt flesh and nail-like blades who claims his victims through their dreams. . This is one of the most iconic horror franchises in Hollywood history. Still, during the interview, the actress explained that the film directed by Samuel Bayer had been the worst experience of her career, although she preferred not to go into details.
During a previous interview in 2011, Mara told Entertainment Weekly that she wasn't even interested in being in A Nightmare on Elm Street because the movie wasn't "what I signed up for," causing her to become discouraged and rethink her career as a filmmaker. Actress. "If that's what my opportunities are going to be like, then I'm not that interested in acting," she added Mara.
Continuing the discussion, Rooney Mara explained that after her disappointment with A Nightmare on Elm Street, her participation in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo made her fall in love with her career again.
The afterschool special is a concept deeply rooted in North American culture, characterized by educational films designed for a school audience, adolescents, in which it is about teaching them some important lessons about life, lessons that change over time. Watching WOMEN TALKING, I couldn't help feeling that I was watching a modernized and arthouse version of that same type of program, a film designed in a didactic, educational way, correct from a political point of view but practically non-existent from almost all others. Sarah Polley's film is the "afterschool special" of the #MeToo era. It's intended as a lesson on every issue surrounding this moment in the world's cultural zeitgeist.
But it can also be seen as part of another tradition, that of the "politically engaged" theater of the 1930s or 1940s, with works assembled and structured as allegories to represent some important theme of some historical moment. In WOMEN TALKING, characters represent different ideas, generations, and attitudes in a purely symbolic place (a "colony") where they have to deal with the brutal male violence inflicted on them for years. The concrete fact is terrible, but Polley uses it as an excuse to raise awareness about something that, by now, almost everyone who sees this film has become aware of.
In a religious community that seems to be Mennonite or similar – at first glance, everything seems to take place centuries or decades ago, but we will soon see that it is not so – a rare phenomenon occurs that the men of the site describe as mystical, fantastic. For several years, women of all ages have waked up, bloodied, beaten, raped, and violated. There seems to be no explanation, and they say it is Satan, some ghost or mythical creature. But quickly in the film, not in the story based on a true event that happened in Bolivia – the women discover that it is a group of men from the community who are raping the girls, drugging them with animal tranquilizers, and then escaping without being seen or reported.
Polley quickly and didactically shows that the angry women of the colony are given three options for responding to this aggression. One is to shut up, say nothing, and leave everything as it is. It's another to stay and put up a fight, to fight a macho community where women aren't even allowed to learn to read and write. And the third is to leave all of them, even when it costs them –according to the religion they profess– the entrance to paradise. The women vote and, immediately, the first option loses. But the other two are tied in votes. And eight women must meet in a shed to debate, analyze and discuss what they should do. As they would say in that song by The Clash: should they stay or go?.
And there is a kind of theatrical piece that, due to the slightest visual deviations (towards characters who are outside the "assembly" or to anecdotes or images from the past), is presented with an armed format to be taken to a stage with "a great cast» of important actresses. Here the ones that represent the different points of view are three. The main one is Ona (Rooney Mara), whose idea is to stay and try to convince men to change how they treat women. She is about to be a mother, and she has a certain romantic interest in August (Ben Whishaw) –who accompanies the women in the room to take note of what they have said since they cannot write, and she has a beatific smile that cannot be erased for a long time. More horror stories are to be told.
Mariche (Jessie Buckley) and Salomé (Claire Foy) are more intense. The first want to leave at all costs, tired of dealing with the men of the community and what they have done to her and her family. And the second, equally or angrier, prefers to stay and increase the tension, if necessary, violently. Judith Ivey plays Agata, and Sheila McCarthy plays Greta, two older women, and mothers of the three protagonists, who try to combine wisdom and some banal anecdotes to make their ideas and experiences known. And Frances McDormand will also pass by, but hers is almost an act of severe presence.
The list of nominees for the 80th Golden Globe Awards is out, and Banshees of Inisherin leads the best picture nominees with eight nominations.
The award ceremony has already confirmed its date for January 10, 2023, returning with its live broadcast on NBC. So far, the location is uncertain, and most likely, it will occur in the compound that has been his home for 20 years, The Beverly Hilton, in Beverly Hills.
Remember that the Golden Globes did not take place in 2022 due to the February 2021 boycott of the Los Angeles Times against the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for its lack of equity and equality in the industry.
Thanks to these posts from L.A. Times, the HFPA implemented new reforms to show a more diverse and representative association.
"This is no longer the old HFPA," Helen Hoehne, the organization's president, told The Hollywood Reporter.
"Over the last 18 months, almost two years, we have looked deeply inward and listened to criticism… And we have built a new infrastructure that has transformed our organization and the award show into something more diverse, transparent, and responsive," she added.
This will undoubtedly be the claim for the Golden Globes since the HFPA is doing everything for its relaunch; comedian, actor, and writer Jerrod Carmichael will host the long-awaited awards night.
Polley transforms a provocative and complex argument into an exhausting "consortium meeting" in which there is not even a solid internal coherence. The characters all change their point of view (let one go and go, but here they are all); they all explain and are explained in terms that are not their own. There are even a series of inclusions of characters that are there to leave in. Of course, the film also has time to deal with people with different sexualities and even the prototypical "good man" who makes it clear that, well, not everyone is the same, something that, literally.
Sarah Polley had not gone behind the cameras since Stories We Tell, an acclaimed documentary that revealed her family's secrets. The actress and director adapt Miriam Toews' novel, a post-#MeToo tale in which a group of women from an isolated religious colony in the middle of Bolivia struggles to reconcile with their faith after a series of sexual assaults.
For years, in the remote Molotschna Mennonite colony, dozens of women have been systematically drugged and raped while they slept. They woke up sore and bleeding. The community insisted that everything was the product of their wild imagination, or perhaps the devil, who punished them for their sins. The rapists, however, were men from the neighborhood itself: uncles, brothers, or neighbors who finally ended up in prison but who, in just two days, will be released on bail and return home. Eight of these women who suffered abuse and rape are about to meet in secret to make a decision that will determine their future. What should they do? Forgive them, as Bishop Peters asks. Respond to violence with more violence? Or leave forever?.
Many wondered for years why Isabel Coixet's muse had not directed again in 10 years until this year, Sarah Polley revealed that she had suffered a domestic accident -when a fire extinguisher fell on her head while she was exercising in the gym- which left him with serious health consequences.
After recovering, the actress-director teamed up with the producers of Moonlight and 12 Years an enslaved person to adapt a celebrated novel by Miriam Toews published shortly after the birth of the #MeToo movement and loosely inspired by a true event that rocked the Manitoba colony. In 2011, seven men from an ultra-conservative Mennonite community in Bolivia stood trial after being accused of raping 130 women in their homes between 2005 and 2009 after drugging them with animal anesthesia.
Together with The Fabelmans (the film about the life of Steven Spielberg that won at the Toronto Festival) and Almas en banshee in Inisherin (reinforced after leaving Venice with the Volpi Cup for Colin Farrell and the best screenplay award for Martin McDonagh), Women Talking is in the leading group of the race for the Oscar almost three months from the nominations. The reviews have been very positive, although some voices point out that the film is more concerned with the message than the cinematographic issues.
Women Talking is an ensemble film that seeks to capture the reality of women from a community that is oppressed and abused by men in the area. Rooney Mara (Carol) is the only cast member nominated for an Oscar in the lead category for her performance as Ona, a single woman who becomes pregnant after a rape. Claire Foy (Elizabeth II of the first two seasons of The Crown) is Salome, a woman who takes the law into her own hands when she discovers that her daughter has been sexually assaulted. Jessie Buckley (The Dark Daughter) is Marche, a woman trapped in an abusive marriage.
The only leading actor in the cast is Ben Whishaw (the last agent Q of the 007 sagas), in charge of giving life to August, a more open-minded professor who managed to leave the community before it was too late. Rounding out the cast are veterans Sheila McCarthy and Judith Avery as Greta and Agata, the matriarchs of their respective families. McDormand, the film's producer, appears in a supporting role, not in Toews' original story. According to the bets, Buckley, Foy, and Whishaw are the best positioned to receive the Oscar nomination.
Sarah Polley belongs to the caste of great interpreters turned into filmmakers. Her body of work, which includes the film Stories We Tell, from exactly a decade ago, and Far from Her, from 2006, to mention a few of her tapes, show that we are dealing with such an artist with capital letters. And the last work of her behind the cameras, she has shown it once again.
In the remarkable Women Talking, Sarah Polley writes and directs an adaptation of the Miriam Toews novel. It is a gritty story inspired by a real-life mass rape in a Mennonite enclave in Bolivia.
The visual and dramatic genius of Sarah Polley places us in the state of things after the attacks of men against women part of the community. Polley's camera falls on a handful of women of all ages who must deliberate a long and endless day whether to forgive, fight or escape from such a sorry state of affairs.
Almost all the action takes place in a barn, and in this scenario, the women victims discuss, from their illiteracy and constant contempt to which they are subjected by men, the actions to follow after the criminal acts. As it is a Mennonite community, the time has stopped, and there are no signs of the present: no technology or cell phones, and the justice of men boasts of its absence and the divine.
Although it may seem theatrical in some sections, this is one of the tremendous films of the awards season that opens at the end of the year. The reasons? Polley's storytelling prowess as a filmmaker and director is abysmal, and her actresses offer an awesome gallery of performances.
Rooney Mara draws applause as a woman whose pregnancy results from one of the rapes. Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley, each to their record, are extraordinary at playing the kinds of rage that comes from male abuse. And what to say about Sheila McCarthy as one of the also raped mothers and grandmothers who comes out of her conformism to the just protest.
Women Talking is an extraordinary film. Each piece of the film is a collective record of the very necessary and still too absent female gaze in the cinema. It is a cry of pain made with the best art that cinema can give. Extraordinary, one of the best of TIFF 2022. The supervising script of the film is the Chilean-Canadian Consuelo Solar.
MGM presents the first trailer for 'Women Talking,' a film adaptation of the non-fiction novel by Miriam Toews published in 2018 that we know in Spain under the title 'They speak' thanks to the publishing house Sexto Piso.
Sarah Polley has been in charge of writing and directing this film, the third as a director after 'Far from her' and 'Take This Waltz' by this actress known for her roles in films such as 'Dawn of the Dead' or 'Splice: Deadly experiment.'
Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, and Frances McDormand lead the cast of this production of Hear/Say Productions, Orion Pictures, and Brad Pitt's Plan B that will be released in North American theaters by United Artists Releasing on December 2, in Spain on February 17, 2023, by Universal Pictures.
The actress and director Sarah Polley had ten years without working on a film. Her personal life and an accident that caused her concussion took her away from the big screen. Well known for being a social activist and a flag for any woman in the industry, it was known that her return would be great. For this, she chose, at the initiative of Frances McDormand, Women Talking, a novel based on the book of the same name by Miriam Toews. A powerful and reflective film that comes from an imaginary female act.
Women Talking (2022). Directed by: Sarah Polley. Screenplay: Sarah Polley (based on the novel by Miriam Toews). Cast: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand, Judith Ivey, Emily Mitchell, Liv McNeil, Sheila McCarthy, August Winter, Kira Guloien, and Ben Whishaw, among others. Photography: Luc Montpellier. Editing: Christopher Donaldson, Roslyn Kalloo. Music: Hildur Guðnadóttir. Duration: 1 hour 44 minutes. Our opinion: Good.
Women Talking follows a group of women from a small religious community cut off from society who, fed up with the constant attacks by men (mostly rapes), debate whether they should leave or stay. During several secret meetings, they will discuss and analyze the pros and cons of their decisions. The scenario is built with thoughts about the place of women in the world and the actions they must take. Forgiveness, love, guilt, the common good, revenge, and democracy. All are issues that are addressed very effectively.
The film's biggest success is that without the need for any big explosions or plot twists, it maintains suspense and tone throughout. There is even the conscious decision not to show the physical violence with which these women live. Instead, the camera dedicates minutes to those moments of reality that happen just after the heinous act. Women Talking does not seek to please anyone. There will be more than one who wants to install it as a "feminist pamphlet." The truth is that the film aims to describe what all the women without adequate tools (who could not read or write) needed to express suffer this situation.
After seeing the movie, it is impossible to think of a complete cast. Under an almost theatrical scheme, each actress manages to modulate in their way the suffering and hatred they carry with them. Claire Foy stands out with a furious monologue. Rooney Mara is the film's soul, a broken character who must deny love. Jessie Buckley again shows that she is the actress to watch for this new generation. Judith Ivey and Sheila McCarthy bring serenity and wisdom without leaving memory aside. Ben Whishaw, the only man in the cast, connects well with the story. Even Frances McDormand herself, who has only a few minutes on the screen, invades the entire screen.
What to do when you don't have a voice. When your opinion doesn't matter, when you are abused for years without anyone knowing or daring to do anything about it, these are some of the issues that "Ellas Hedland" (Women Talking) presents to us through a story that takes place in the year 2010, but that involves characters who could very well be living in the 18th century. Directed and written by teacher Sarah Polley and based on Miriam Toews' book of the same name, "They Talk," is a powerful drama that could very well have felt like 'filmed theatre' but happily manages to transcend the sheer amount of dialogue. With which your script has. It's not just a film of ideas but also of very well-defined characters that should make you feel something.
The protagonists of "Ellas hablando" live in a Mennonite community —extremely religious and far from all modern technology. The film begins when the community women discover that several men who live with them have been sexually abusing them for years—drugging them while they slept and then raping them. When one of them was finally caught escaping from his house, he confessed to his crimes and, more importantly, revealed the names of those who did the same. That's how they were taken to jail, but that's also why most of the supposedly innocent men have gone to town, ready to pay the bail necessary to release them.
That has left the women alone, many of whom are now debating: what to do? Ona (Rooney Mara) is about to give birth to a child from rape. There's also Salome (Claire Foy), who has a four-year-old daughter suffering from a sexually transmitted disease and wants to stay to fight and get rid of these horrible men. And Marche (Jessie Buckley), constantly abused by her husband, reacts with anger that comes from a very deep place. All of them are accompanied by older and younger women and August (Ben Whishaw), a quiet, polite, and kind man helping them write down everything being discussed. After all, none of them can read or write.
The central themes of "Ellas hablando" are treated with the subtlety of a drill, but it is understandable. What we have here is a group of women who must discuss their present situation; After all, the decision they are going to make will end up shaping both their future and that of their daughters and sons. Thus, they end up talking not only about religion —at first, many of them worry that, without deciding to leave the community, they will not be accepted in heaven—but also about their role in the small society to which they belong, their rights, the education they have not received, forgiveness, and the independence they could achieve. How much have these men taken from you? How much could they bring with them if they decided to leave? And could they form a new community, more just and equitable, if they choose to leave their home?.
All these ideas could end up overshadowing the characters in "Ellas hablan," but that is where the brilliance of Sarah Polley's script lies: all these discussions and debates arise from the personality contrasts that exist between these women. Each one is so well defined that the exchanges of opinions end up feeling like a natural part of the story of their interactions. Consider Jessie Buckley's Marche, unable to contain her anger, always ready to blame others and silence them with her own opinions (her attitudes to her are very well justified with a potent revelation). Or Rooney Mara's Ona, a gentle woman with deep thoughts who also exchanges constant glances with Ben Whishaw's August, a young man who doesn't even seem to know what toxic masculinity is.
