November 28, 2022 – Women sexually abused in their sleep at a remote religious community are told by the elders the attacks did not happen, or that it was ghosts, satan, or “an act of wild female imagination.” This movie about abused women making tough choices opens with the words “what follows is an act of female imagination.”

This movie, directed by Sarah Polley (“Mr. Nobody”) is based on a 2018 novel of the same name by Canadian writer Miriam Toews, which, in turn is loosely based on actual events that happened at a conservative Mennonite religious colony in Bolivia. The movie itself seems surreal, of a time and place that seems disconnected from the modern world.

Women leaders of the colony hold a meeting in the loft of a barn to decide what to do about being abused by men of the colony. They have been systematically drugged and raped over many years. They have also suffered serious physical abuse. The men tell them they have to forgive the offenders, or be banished from the colony, and from the kingdom of heaven as well.

The women of the colony vote on three options. Stay in the colony and do nothing, stay in the colony and fight for justice, or leave the colony. The vote is tied between leaving the colony, or staying and fighting. Women leaders of the colony are elected to decide which of the two alternatives is best. They have only two days to decide.

Leaving the colony is not an easy option since the women have little or no education. Most can't read or write. There is a school for boys at the colony, run by the college-educated August Epp (played by Ben Whishaw of “No Time to Die”) who acts as a secretary at the meetings to record what is said and what is decided.

All the women at the meeting are women of faith, and their Christian faith plays a large part in their deliberations. There is a lot of tension between faith and fact, however, since the colony elders, and the men of the colony have been lying to them for years about the systematic abuse.

As women of faith they believe that they should forgive the men who have harmed them, but at what point does forgiveness become permission to harm them again? If they stay in the colony how do they know the men will not return to their evil ways? How can they protect their children from abuse?

If they leave, they will have to make a new life for themselves somehow in a world which is foreign to them, in a place where they may not even know the language. They don't even know what direction to go to get to the nearest town. A breakthrough comes when one woman says she will kill any man who tries to harm her children. Others agree that violence must be avoided.

Some are so afraid to leave that they don't even see leaving as a possibility. They talk about being cut off from their families and friends. They worry that they lack the will, the strength, the skills to leave and make a new life for themselves. These are people who have freedom, if they can take the steps necessary to grab freedom, and hold onto it once they've got it.

Although this seems to be an isolated case of abuse in an unusual place and situation. It can be seen as a story that relates to any person caught in an abusive relationship in which they feel dependent and powerless to leave. If the same person also feels a religious obligation to continue in the abusive relationship, that makes decisions even more difficult.

The discussions leading up to decisions are filled with emotions and careful thoughts, as well as experiences based on their lives in this primitive farm-based colony. There are many outstanding performances here, including that of Whishaw, Rooney Mara (“Nightmare Alley”) who plays Ona, Judith Ivey (“Flags of Our Fathers”) who plays Agata, Sheila McCarthy (“The Day After Tomorrow”) who plays Greta, Jessie Buckley (“The Lost Daughter”) who plays Mariche and Claire Foy (“First Man”) who plays Salome.

The title, “Women Talking” doesn't really sound dynamic. While the title is descriptive, there is a lot more going on in this film than just talk. This is a movie about life, death, faith and freedom. The women in this film accomplish something that men are not often able to do, create a consensus. This film rates an A.

Additional notes: I was a bit thrown off about talk in the film about navigating via the Southern Cross, a star formation too far south to be visible in most of the United States, until I found out this story is probably set in Bolivia. Everybody in the movie talks like Americans. There are no accents indicating a country other than the U.S. In the real Manitoba Colony in Bolivia related to this story, the residents speak low German. There is also the incongruous choice of the song “Daydream Believer” by the Monkees in the film as well as over the credits. This movie, however, is clearly labeled as “an act of female imagination,” so it is O.K. for it to be a lot more disconnected from reality than a docudrama.

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