Women Talking, film by Sarah Polley
My film
review of Sarah Polley’ Women Talking. Beware, only one of these
scripts below is the real one! Watch the trailer at the end. Film out in France
on International Women’s Day: 8 March 2023
In a reclusive worldwide
community called Twitterland based in NoMansLand in the year 2023, women gather
secretly to discuss their fate, their faith, their future. All have been subjected
to gaslighting and are regular victims of cyber attacks. Men being the driving
force behind these manipulations and never ending violence. Joe Strummer of The Clash is here to help, taking minutes silently on their pros
and cons regarding their ‘should they
stay or should they go?’ reflection / discussions! The debate can only last
two days before the women make up their mind: on 7 March 2023 and 8 March. 7
March is an exceptional date as all countries worldwide will see at various
times the Full Moon (aka Worm Moon, Eagle Moon, Goose Moon, Crow Comes Back
Moon, The Sugar Moon, The Wind Strong Moon, The Sore Eyes Moon, The Lenten Moon).
8 March is International Women’s Day. Will women unfollow all men on Twitter? Will
they kill a sacred musk deer to obtain perfume from its scrotum?
In an unknown space surrounded with heavenly shades of greens scenery lies a little house in the prairie where women gather and debate over the course of two days. Their hair is either sadistically tightly plated or covered with a scarf, their bodies fully covered with strict flowery pattern dresses (pretty similar patterns on their bed sheets). They seem to inhabit a far away century, an ancient millennium but The Monkees’ Daydream Believer storms from a next town car showing evidence of a sign ‘o’ the times. For years or decades, these women have woken up bloodied, bruised, pregnant. For years or decades, they were told it was “wild female imagination” “a work of Satan” “ghosts”! Until perpetrators got caught and put away in bail… for their safety... fearing women’ rage! Until they return, women have two days to decide whether they forgive, stay and fight or leave. At times, the debate seems anachronistic as one transgender person only responds to their new identity or a woman smokes a lot. At times, we want to shout at the raped and pregnant woman for loving her unborn child. At times, we want to hold a woman whose truthful but ferocious words are the results of severe abuse. Harmony and arguments are what woven these women from their newly found (two days) freedom. They find power as a collective rather than seek strength through individuality.
Men are not seen with discernible faces nor are they seen being violent, rather they are only spectre. Despite being illiterate, these talking women realise they can articulate they thoughts. Think... they want to think and learn who they are.
In a temple, or perhaps in a church or a synagogue or a mosque within a tranquil and idyllic environment, a God’s eye view shot in a suffocating space tolls the bells. Men are taken away, giving space to women. In Witchland, the triple Goddess represents the moon phases: the maiden, the mother, the crone. The cycle of life act as a symbol. A woman doesn’t have to go through motherhood to be included in that cycle (she doesn’t even have to have her periods). In that beautifully lit barn where women unite in the absence of men for two days, there are young girls, a pregnant woman, two mothers and two menopaused women. None of them is a virgin. If they don’t forgive men, they will have to leave and risk excommunication as well as being denied entry to heaven... a very uncertain underworld life is therefore expected. But, as the pregnant woman asks “Is forgiveness that is forced upon us true forgiveness?” to which a menopaused woman replies “Forgiveness can, in some instances, be confused with permission”. The elders are discovering thanks to the youngsters that for generations they have been sedated with animal tranquilizers. Their attackers are neither ghosts nor Satan nor are they fruit of their imaginations, there are their brothers, uncles, fathers, husbands. We can love and respect the pregnant woman for loving her unborn child, fruit of a rape and feel really annoyed at the mothers expressing their anger or will to kill. Most of it all, we are all those witches. SPOILER from here: there is sacrifice to be made, love will tear the pregnant woman and the teacher apart as the camera lifts high up in the sky leaving the caravan of women and children and horses on a long dusty road to somewhere. They are migrants in their own soil, the unknown can only be better.
Set in a far away planet in 2977 AD
Captain Harlock is the only man allowed among the Mazons. He takes minutes to
record their thinking, their words, their feelings, their questioning. He
rarely ventures as a timid voice of guidance. He reminds us that #NotAllMen are
predators. However, all men are somehow involved in the power system, therefore
making it possible to silence victims. Captain Harlock’s only fate, with his
unseen scar, is to stay onsite, teach the boys, correct them, give them an
education that will respect others.
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