Review by gsygsy

This film affected me powerfully. My childhood was overshadowed by a volatile father of whose potential for violence we lived in fear. He wasn't a drunk, so, compared to many who lived and live in such circumstances, I guess I got off lightly. But my mother didn't. And this is what WOMEN TALKING suddenly brought back to me. The helplessness of her situation, at a time when divorce was hard to get unless you had money, and even then carried a shroud of shame.

On the day I write this, the Taliban in Afghanistan have banned women from universities. A woman's life in that country is structurally little different from that lived by the women depicted in Sarah Polley's film. It may have a period setting, but it could be many women's lives today.

WOMEN TALKING counterpoints beautiful expanses of farmland with unspeakable cruelties. Hymns are sung to help down howls of pain. The ensemble cast, which includes a couple of stunning performances by theatre veterans Judith Ivey and Sheila McCarthy, as well as several newcomers, is superb.

Excellent, urgent, important, unmissable.