January 24, 2025
Thanks to Alissa Simon, HMU Tutor, for today’s post.
The Winter Film Series kicked off with the hard-hitting Women Talking. The film, directed by Sarah Polley, profiles a small, isolated Mennonite community in Bolivia. A series of incidents lead the women to discover that some men in the community have repeatedly drugged and then sexually assault them. The women hold a plebiscite on whether to do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. The film focuses on these discussions. The film charts the highs and lows of diplomacy, honesty, and emotion. Each woman has been scarred. They have been lied to and manipulated in awful ways. The children, too, have been hurt. During these discussions, the women open up about the nature of hate, forgiveness, love, faith, and community. They weigh the pros and cons of leaving everything they know while also risking eternal damnation.
Based on the 2018 book by the same name, written by Miriam Toews, Women Talking also includes the story of August, a schoolteacher who received his training in the outside world. August takes meeting minutes since many of the women cannot read or write. In order to vote, they draw images of the options. The sketch that portrays the option of “stay and fight” shows a man and woman, who might otherwise be dancing, wielding knives. Clearly, to fight would be foreign territory for these women, raising the question of their success. Even still, the vote results in a tie between fighting and leaving.
Throughout the film, some women express an almost singular emotion, such as Ona who feels love for everyone. She questions, “Why does love – the absence of love, the end of love, the need for love – result in so much violence?” Salome, however, feels such rage that she knows she will become a murderer if she stays. Mid-discussion, she understandably rages, “I will destroy any living thing that harms my child. I will tear it limb from limb. I will desecrate its body and I will bury it alive. I will challenge God on the spot to strike me dead if I have sinned by protecting my child from evil, and my destroying that evil that it may not harm another. I will lie, I will hunt, I will kill. I will dance on graves and I will burn forever in hell before I allow another man to satisfy his violent urges with the body of my four year old child.” The awareness of having been lied to and taken advantage of results in extreme emotional swings from some characters. Prominent emotions include anxiety, fear, and confusion. Yet, surprisingly, the women also laugh. They are resilient.
The crux of the argument revolves around faith. The women believe that leaving the community risks eternal damnation. However, the women also come to realize that their faith has been delivered, guided, and instructed by the community’s men, the very same perpetrators of their crimes. The very same men who have drugged them and lied to them. Though the women cannot read and don’t have access to the Bible outside of memorized passages, hymns, and prayer, they begin to question the very foundations of their community. Greta explains her reason for leaving: “Leaving is how we demonstrate our faith. We are leaving because our faith is stronger than the rules. Bigger than our life.” She recognizes that the rules were made by people who somewhere along the road lost their own way.
In the end, the women come to the conclusion that the men are as much prisoners as the women are. The men have been raised to believe that abuse (physical and sexual) is acceptable. The men believe that God does not judge the abuser, only the abused. Through this dialogue, the women realize that the entire community has become contaminated and is no longer a safe haven or a peaceful colony. They reason, therefore, that the men have restricted their own entrance into heaven.
The film is a beautiful example of dialogue. It asks difficult questions, many of which remain unanswered. What is forgiveness? What is faith? How can one question God? What are our responsibilities to truth? How do we educate the young? The women fight and argue, but they also support and guide. They listen, scream, cry, grieve, hug, and ultimately come to a universal conclusion. Though they may not agree on everything, though they may choose to leave for different reasons, they all contribute to the larger goal. They choose to find a healthier way of life which recognizes female independence, thought, and ability.
Three quotes guided our discussion. HMU Tutor Gary Schoepfel opened with the following quotes:
“It is our first duty to serve society, and, after we have done that, we may attend wholly to the salvation of our own souls.” (Johnson from Boswell’s Life of Johnson)
“Flight at the proper time, just as well as fighting, is to be reckoned, therefore, as showing strength of mind in a man who is free; that is to say, a free man chooses flight by the same strength or presence of mind as that by which he chooses battle.” (Spinoza, Ethics)
And finally, in the film, August quotes Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
“I believe in what the great poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge thought were the cardinal rules of early education. ‘To work by love and so generate love. To habituate the mind to intellectual accuracy and truth. To excite imaginative power.’ He said, ‘Little is taught by contest or dispute, everything by sympathy and love.’”
Based on honest dialogue and difficult choices, the women choose to leave. Filled with love, hope, and optimism, they attempt to leave the ugliness behind.
Thanks to the brave group who joined us for this discussion. And there are still two more films to go! Join us for Barbie on Thursday, February 6, 2025. Find more events at hmu.edu.
Photo credit: Shutterstock/ zhukovvvlad
