[FILM]
WOMEN TALKING
The women find their voices in the barn (l-r): Mejal (Michelle McLeod), Greta (Sheila McCarthy), Neitje (Liv McNeil), Mariche (Jessie Buckley), Salome (Claire Foy), Autje (Kate Hallett), Ona (Rooney Mara) and Agata (Judith Ivey).
★★★★
OUT 10 FEBRUARY / CERT 15 104 MINS
DIRECTOR Sarah Polley
CAST Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, Frances McDormand
PLOT Following a series of sexual assaults by the men in an isolated Mennonite colony, eight women congregate in a barn to debate their course of action. Do they forgive the men for years of abuse and cover-up — or do they abandon their community for good?
Deep in thought alongside good man and ally August (Ben Whishaw).
OVER A DECADE since her last feature, actor-turned-filmmaker Sarah Polley returns with a drama that is at once claustrophobic, searing and profound. With only a few credits under her belt as filmmaker — including the tender, aching Take This Waltz (2011) and her semi-autobiographical non-fiction triumph Stories We Tell (2012) — Polley has asserted herself as an astutely observational director, capable of finding deep emotional language in simple premises. Women Talking is an effortless extension of those sensibilities.