In a patriarchal environment is the plot of They speakSarah Polley’s film which has two nominations for the oscar which is delivered this Sunday March 12: best film and best adapted screenplay.
But the men are featured by default, as this is writer-director Sarah Polley’s adaptation of a 2019 Miriam Toews novel focusing on the female members of a Mennonite colony (although no mention is made in the film). Originally, it took place in Bolivia. Here, it’s somewhere in the US, early 2010s.
The main thing is the sexual abuse plot uncovered in that community isolated from civilization, and the resolution that the women of the congregation will make for the first time.
They speak It could also be a play, given that the actions take place practically entirely inside a barn in that rural community, but, in that case, the laborious visual framework that the Canadian director created together with her director of production would be lost. photography. she worked with Polley on away from her (2006).
The palette that Montpellier elaborates has sepias, blacks and blues, which are highlighted as usually happens in these cases with the work of set and costume designer. The music of the Icelandic Hildur Guðnadóttir (Oscar for joker; Chernobyl) also highlights more than it accompanies, and the soundtrack is disruptive: it includes A daydreamerthe 1968 song by The Monkees.
“What follows is an act of female imagination,” reads the beginning of the screening. The women, gathered in that barn, are about to give their answer to years of sexual harassment and abuse. The obviously male leaders insisted that the horrors they had experienced belonged to “demons” or, worse, “wild female imaginations”.
But the time has come for deeds and not words. Even more so for those -those here- who have never raised their voice.
each with his own monologue
Among other things, in the film, which is not large, but at times stretches out due to the profusion of texts, philosophical and religious juxtapositions and discussions overlap, which threaten the public unwilling to listen to so many allegories.
The only man there, in the barn, is August (Ben Whishaw, new to the Bond films), the teacher the women trust to write the minutes of their meetings. Education was not a common currency: when the time comes to vote, it will be a sum of crosses.
In short, women vote for three possible answers: do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. Finally, the last two options remain, and it will be the women of two families who will end up voting which wins.
They speak it’s an ensemble film, with eight women representing three different generations, and each one will have her time, her monologue – yes, Polley’s vigorous staging is similar to a comedy -.
Among them is the youngest, Autje (Kate Hallett), who provides the voice-over narration, Ona (Rooney Mara), pregnant rape victim, the more belligerent Mariche (Jessie Buckley), mother of Autje.
Also, the rebellious Salome (Claire Foy, from The crown), who went to seek medical care for his sick daughter, breaking the rules of men. A teenager suffering from panic attacks, Mejal (Michelle McLeod) and the two older women, Agata (Judith Ivey) and Greta (Sheila McCarthy), who would offer something like the wisdom of those who have lived and suffered the most.
A separate paragraph deserves the inclusion of the character of Frances McDormand, -one of the producers of the film-, who shows wounds on her cheeks and who cannot imagine a life outside that community in this film more courageous than accomplished.
“They speak”
Drama. USA, 2022. Original title: “Women Who Talk”. 104′, SAM 13 R. From: Sarah Polley. With: Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand, Judith Ivey. Rooms: Cinépolis Recoleta, Avellaneda, Hoyts Abasto, Cinemark Palermo, Showcase Belgrano and Norcenter.
Source: Clarin
