MEXICO CITY (Process).- Canadian Sarah Polley has full authority to deal with issues of abuse of the status of women; she herself was raped and even, as a political activist, beaten by the police. Absent from the cinema for a few years, the work of this precocious actress, screenwriter and director reappears mature and energetic with Women Talking (Women Talking; EU, 2022), based on the novel by Miriam Toews, itself inspired by real events. . .. which happened in a Mennonite community in Canada in 2010.

For years, women and girls have been raped at night after being drugged with cow tranquilizers; when they awoke, bloodied and bruised, the men of the congregation, rapists and non-rapists alike, blamed the devil’s acts or accused them of exaggeration. Thanks to the fact that one of them does not manage to escape, a series of arrests are carried out and the community is left without men for a few days, time which the women take advantage of to debate the advisability of s escape or stay to forgive. and forget, as the hierarchs suggest. .

Sarah Polley takes advantage of the specific cultural environment and uses to support her metaphors about the situation in which women in the community live; the debate takes place in a barn, where most of the film takes place, and the fact that the men are about to return creates an atmosphere of persecution and fear. In They Speak, the masculine is felt as a dark menacing force, a dark flux, and the only definite masculine presence is that of August (Ben Whishaw), a stranger whose family was once expelled, who has returned to as a teacher; children and pubescents appear in an open perspective, either that of future torturers, potential rapists, or conscious men if they educate themselves.

When it comes to feminism, Polley’s vision is deeply committed, not out of simple political activism but realistic and optimistic insofar as she is able to show a male character who is perfectly empathetic with women, not giving them the pleasure of supporting them but who understands that they are essential in their own destiny as human beings; the proposal is not that of a new form of masculinity, but one that is appropriate and possible, because August represents a real type of man, and not the embodiment of a series of ideas.

A gallery of women, with highly credible characters, like Ona (Rooney Mara), intelligent and combative, or Mariche (Jessie Buckley), who hesitates between breaking with the pattern or continuing to submit; there is also a detestable character, that of Salomé (Claire Foy). Each of them exists by itself beyond the role assigned to it by the scenario or community diversity; The most important aspect of Mujeres hablan is the need to face the crisis not only from a political and cultural point of view, but also from an existential point of view. To live in a constant struggle, to love the executioner because the Gospel asks for forgiveness? The reflection proposed by Sarah Polley goes beyond revenge, it raises questions that require deep reflection.

Text published in issue 2419 of the printed edition of Proceso, which you can buy the digital edition on this link.