NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� When Sarah Polley has flown from her home in Toronto to the U.S. this year for the release of her film she鈥檚 had conversations with customs officials that usually go something like this:
鈥淲hat are you here for?鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 screening a film.鈥�
鈥淲hat鈥檚 the name of the film?鈥�
鈥淲omen Talking.鈥�
鈥淭hen I get either the biggest eyeroll you鈥檝e ever seen or I get something openly confrontational like, 鈥業鈥檝e had enough of that in my life. I鈥檓 not going to see that movie,鈥� Polley says. 鈥淭hen I have to decide whether to take the bait and risk not getting into the country.鈥�
Sometimes, she does take the bait. The title, she notes, isn鈥檛 鈥淲omen Shouting鈥� or 鈥淲omen Berating.鈥� And yet she鈥檚 found it鈥檚 often received like a confrontation.
鈥淥ne guy I asked: 鈥楽o if I told you there was this movie called 鈥�12 Angry Men,鈥� would you feel the same way?鈥欌�� Polley, the 43-year-old Canadian filmmaker and actor, said on a recent stop in New York. 鈥淗e was like 鈥業 don鈥檛 know.鈥� And I was like, 鈥榃ell, I think you should just sit with that then. I still want to get into the country, I鈥檓 just saying to sit with that.鈥欌��
Simple as its title may be, 鈥淲omen Talking鈥� is a radical work, in both its subject matter and execution. It鈥檚 adapted from , loosely based , about an ultraconservative Mennonite colony in Bolivia where many of the village鈥檚 women gather in a hayloft to discuss a deeply alarming revelation: Men in their colony have been drugging and raping them in their sleep.
The conversation that unspools among the women (the ensemble includes Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy and Ben Wishaw as the lone man in the room) is riven with questions of justice, fate and spirituality. Should they stay or leave? Remake the community or start it anew?
Specific as the circumstances are, the dialogue 鈥� at turns furious, anguished, ruminative and hopeful 鈥� more properly takes place in a realm of fable. could be anywhere, anytime. The conflicting points of view could even be one woman鈥檚 inner monologue. It鈥檚 a story that reverberates with the present realities of #MeToo yet it鈥檚 also archetypal, out of time.
鈥淚鈥檓 really curious about a way forward,鈥� says Polley. 鈥淚鈥檓 really curious about what it feels like to not judge myself if and when anger comes up, to just not live there. What healing looks like and what building something better looks like.鈥�
It was that forward-looking nature in 鈥淲omen Talking鈥� that first struck Frances McDormand, a producer of the film who also plays a small role as a character named Scarface Janz. After reading Toews鈥� book, McDormand sent it to Dede Gardner, the Oscar-winning producer and president of Plan B Entertainment.
鈥淲hen I read it, I was really confused about the conversation around predatory abuse, predatory abuse of power, what hadn鈥檛 changed and what seemed to be literally in reversal from when I was an idealistic, broad-eyed, bushy-tailed feminist at 17,鈥� McDormand says. 鈥淎ll the things I thought were possible seemed to be shifting.鈥�
鈥淢iriam framed the conversation about the future,鈥� McDormand adds. 鈥淣ot about the past or about the murky present, but a bright future where the rules can change.鈥�
As the production took shape, with Polley writing the script, 鈥淲omen Talking,鈥� itself, became an opportunity to challenge and remake the largely male-written rules of the film industry. Polley, director of the Alice Munro adaptation 鈥淎way From Her鈥� and the family investigation 鈥淪tories We Tell,鈥� had had three children in the decade since directing her last film. She wanted to foster a more humane working environment, with child care, reasonable hours and open dialogue.
鈥淲e literally made a wish list: If it could be a utopian world, what would it look like?鈥� says McDormand. 鈥淭here is a difference between a matriarchal system of working and a patriarchal one. The whole process was different because it was women talking. I really love Dede鈥檚 answer for this. She says: It鈥檚 not that hard to do. You just bake it into the budget. I think it鈥檚 a really great phrase that we need to use in the industry more. You bake shorter days. You bake the idea that the entire crew should not be sacrificing their personal lives for the making of the film. It鈥檚 not cancer research.鈥�
Foy, who movingly plays a woman named Salome, entered a film environment unlike any she had encountered before.
鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 like it was an all-female set or anything like that,鈥� says Foy. 鈥淏ut it was the first time I had done anything from a female perspective and about something women experience as it is, as opposed to how it鈥檚 been in movies that are directed by people who aren鈥檛 women. There are basically three generations of actors on that set and all of them were doing it for the first time 鈥� which is, I don鈥檛 think, necessarily a glowing report of the film industry.鈥�
A title card at the start of 鈥淲omen Talking鈥� describes it as 鈥渁n act of female imagination.鈥� Often, that imagination was inspired by real-life experience that filtered into the movie. A second or simultaneous dialogue transpired during the film鈥檚 making as the troupe shared stories with one another. A therapist specializing in trauma after sexual assault was present on set.
鈥淭hese conversations would happen with people of all genders on our set, and we would come to a better place through everyone鈥檚 collective experience,鈥� says Polley. 鈥淭hose were, for me, the most magical moments."
Polley had experience to draw on, too. In her autobiographical essay collection, published earlier this year, Polley recounts an sexual encounter, when she was 16, with the former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi, who . In the essay, Polley describes how she struggled with whether to come forward with her experience with him during the high-profile trial, and felt guilty after she didn鈥檛. Ghomeshi maintained the allegations were inaccurate but acknowledged He didn't respond to messages.
鈥淚nevitably and understandably at the beginning of this conversation that鈥檚 happened the last five years, there was a lot about naming and pointing out individuals, and that can be an important part of the process,鈥� says Polley. 鈥淏ut I think a more important part of the process in my mind is looking at the systemic problems that lead to people being able to behave like that.鈥�
Outside of the frequently fractious public #MeToo debates, 鈥淲omen Talking" found a sustained conversation forged on togetherness, mutual respect and the possibility of creating a new path forward.
鈥淚t was magical, basically,鈥� says Foy. 鈥淚t was a magical, if not harrowing and sometimes very difficult, experience. But it was, like, the whole reason anyone does this for a living.鈥�
The actors reached the hayloft by one of two staircases. It was, McDormand says, like entering a sacred space. For McDormand, the experience making 鈥淲omen Talking鈥� felt like forging something new in a film industry that has made strides in women behind the camera, but one where a film like 鈥淲omen Talking鈥� is still a clear exception.
鈥淪peaking from a position as a 65-year-old person who鈥檚 been in the industry, it鈥檚 a really good time for all of us to sit still, keep our mouths closed and listen,鈥� says McDormand. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what I鈥檝e been given the great good fortune to do with Sarah and Dede and watch them take the industry to the next place that it has to go. No more stasis. Not interested.鈥�
Just getting 鈥淲omen Talking,鈥� shot during the pandemic after a one-year delay because of COVID-19 made was an accomplishment. To Polley, more heart rending was that it proved that such a conversation is possible to have, in a hayloft or anywhere else.
鈥淚t felt so utopian at so many points that I think it shifted my worldview,鈥� says Polley. 鈥淚 just feel so much less cynical after going through this experience.鈥�
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Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
