Women Talking - Sarah Polley Makes Perfect, Difficult Films

Content & Trigger Warning: this episode discusses sexual assault in the film and in real life.

THE ARC'S TAKE

We argue that "Women Talking" only looks plotless if you're measuring plot by what happens on screen instead of what it costs to decide anything at all — and that the film's real subject isn't the assault but the coerced forgiveness that lets it keep happening.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Women Talking, Sarah Polley's quiet, devastating film about the women of a Mennonite colony who discover they've been drugged and assaulted by the men in their community — and who spend two days in a barn deciding whether to do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. Cole and Robby dig into the film's craft, its late-in-editing narration switch, and why "plotless" might be the wrong word for a story built entirely around the fact that Jaclynn didn't watch it — and the reasons behind that choice is essentially the episode — it is one of the more personal episodes The Arc has put out. Content warning: this film discusses sexual assault directly, both in the film and in real life.

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming availability as of 2026-07-05.

• Prime Video (rent or purchase)
• Apple TV (rent or purchase)
• Tubi (streaming free with ads)
• Plex (rent)RSS

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A Long Summary

Women Talking is Sarah Polley's 2022 adaptation of Miriam Toews' novel, and its premise is almost aggressively unpromising as cinema: the women of an isolated Mennonite colony, drugged and assaulted by the men of their own community, are given two days to decide whether to forgive their attackers, stay and fight, or leave. The men are away in town posting bail. The women gather in a hayloft. They talk. Roll credits. Cole, who brought the film to us, will tell you it has zero plot — "we gather in a barn, we talk, roll credits" — and he means that as the highest compliment, since he has a long-running and, per Robby, possibly incoherent theory that plot is just Mad Libs and story is the thing underneath it. The film looks like a Dorothea Lange photograph, it never once puts violence on screen, and it takes a decision most viewers assume is obvious and makes you sit inside how genuinely impossible it is — when you can't read or write, when leaving means forfeiting heaven, when forgiveness that's demanded of you starts to look a lot like permission.

What this episode became was not the tidy storytelling-craft conversation Cole had planned. He'd pitched it, by his own accounting, mostly to tee up nine reasons to praise and gently torment the two people he does this with — number nine being that Jaclynn gets "so effing excited about Sarah Polley" and had, at that point, never actually watched a Sarah Polley film. She still hadn't. Jaclynn tried to watch Women Talking several times and couldn't; her body wouldn't let her, and partway through the episode she says why, plainly and without flinching, in a way that reframes everything Cole thought he was assembling. So we ended up doing something closer to an experiment than a review: two of us who saw it walking a third of us — and you — through what it does and why it lands, while the person who couldn't watch it turns out to have the sharpest read in the room on forgiveness, complicity, and why people get so defensive about this movie in the first place. Robby, who watched it twice, is the one insisting there's a plot in here after all, and the argument the three of us have about that is the spine of the whole thing.

There is a content warning at the top for a reason — this episode discusses sexual assault, in the film and in real life. It is also, somehow, warm, and funny, and full of the kind of care that only shows up when people trust each other completely. Dad, as ever, brought something beautifully gift-wrapped and slightly impossible, and got called pretentious as fuck for his trouble, and was thanked for it sincerely by the end. If you found this looking for whether Women Talking is worth your time, or whether you can handle it, the honest three-way conversation we had about exactly that question is the reason to stay.

CREATIVES

• Sarah Polley — Director — also: Women Talking (2022), Away from Her (2006), Stories We Tell (2012)
• Sarah Polley — Screenwriter — also: Women Talking (2022), Away from Her (2006), Alias Grace (2017)
• Dede Gardner — Producer — also: Women Talking (2022), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Moonlight (2016)
• Jeremy Kleiner — Producer — also: Women Talking (2022), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Moonlight (2016)
• Frances McDormand — Producer — also: Women Talking (2022), Nomadland (2020)
• Luc Montpellier — Cinematographer — also: Women Talking (2022), Away from Her (2006), Take This Waltz (2011)
• Hildur Guðnadóttir — Composer — also: Women Talking (2022), Joker (2019), Chernobyl (2019)

CAST

• Rooney Mara — Ona — also: Carol (2015), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), Nightmare Alley (2021)
• Claire Foy — Salome — also: The Crown (2016), First Man (2018), The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018)
• Jessie Buckley — Mariche — also: Wild Rose (2018), The Lost Daughter (2021), Men (2022)
• Judith Ivey — Agata — also: Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986), Hello Again (2017)
• Ben Whishaw — August — also: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), Skyfall (2012), No Time to Die (2021)
• Sheila McCarthy — Greta — also: I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987), The Umbrella Academy (2019), The Broken Hearts Gallery (2020)
• Frances McDormand — Scarface Janz — also: Fargo (1996), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), Nomadland (2020)
• Michelle McLeod — Mejal — also: Don't Talk to Irene (2018), My Spy (2020)
• Kate Hallett — Autje — also: Women Talking (2022)
• Liv McNeil — Neitje — also: Women Talking (2022)
• August Winter — Melvin/Nettie — also: Women Talking (2022)
• Emily Mitchell — Miep — also: Women Talking (2022)
• Vivien Endicott-Douglas — Clara — also: Women Talking (2022)
• Kira Guloien — Anna — also: Women Talking (2022)
• Shayla Brown — Helena — also: Women Talking (2022)

AWARDS

Here's the film's real awards history:

• Academy Awards — Best Picture — NOMINATION
• Academy Awards — Best Adapted Screenplay — WIN (Sarah Polley) — at the 95th Academy Awards the film was nominated for Best Picture and Polley won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay
• Golden Globes — Best Screenplay — NOMINATION (Sarah Polley)
• Golden Globes — Best Original Score — NOMINATION (Hildur Guðnadóttir) — the film was also nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Original Score at the 80th Golden Globe Awards
• BAFTA — the film received no nominations; Sarah Polley had a notable response when one person suggested her film was snubbed by the BAFTA Film Awards
• Writers Guild of America Awards — Best Adapted Screenplay — WIN (Sarah Polley) — the film won Best Adapted Screenplay at the Critics' Choice Awards, Writers Guild of America Awards, and the Academy Awards
• Directors Guild of America — no nomination found for this film
• Screen Actors Guild Awards — Best Ensemble Cast — NOMINATION — the film was nominated for Best Ensemble Cast of a Motion Picture at the 29th Screen Actors Guild Awards
• Critics' Choice Awards — Best Picture — NOMINATION
• Critics' Choice Awards — Best Director — NOMINATION (Sarah Polley)
• Critics' Choice Awards — Best Acting Ensemble — NOMINATION
• Critics' Choice Awards — Best Score — NOMINATION (Hildur Guðnadóttir)
• Critics' Choice Awards — Best Adapted Screenplay — WIN (Sarah Polley) — 2023 Winner Critics Choice Award · Best Adapted Screenplay · Sarah Polley · 2023 Nominee Critics Choice Award · Best Acting Ensemble · 2023 Nominee Critics Choice Award · Best Score · Hildur Guðnadóttir · 2023 Nominee Critics Choice Award · Best Director · Sarah Polley · 2023 Nominee Critics Choice Award · Best Picture
• Independent Spirit Awards — Best Feature — NOMINATION
• Independent Spirit Awards — Best Director — NOMINATION (Sarah Polley)
• Independent Spirit Awards — Best Screenplay — NOMINATION (Sarah Polley)
• Independent Spirit Awards — Robert Altman Award (Best Ensemble) — WIN — 38 Independent Spirit Awards · nom. Best Feature · nom. Best Director (Sarah Polley) nom. Best Screenplay (Sarah Polley) winner · Robert Altman Award (Best Ensemble)
• Gotham Independent Film Awards — Outstanding Supporting Performance — NOMINATION (Ben Whishaw) — Gotham Independent Film Awards 2022 · nom. Outstanding Supporting Performance (Ben Whishaw)
• National Board of Review — Top Ten Films — WIN — it was named one of the top ten films of 2022 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association — Best Supporting Performance — NOMINATION (Jessie Buckley) — Los Angeles Film Critics Awards (LAFCA 2022) nom. Best Supporting Performance (Jessie Buckley)
• Toronto International Film Festival — People's Choice Award — NOMINATION — Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF 2022) nom. People's Choice Award (Best Film)

The film did not receive nominations from the Directors Guild of America or BAFTA, and was not selected for the National Film Registry.

SOURCE MATERIAL

Women Talking is adapted from Miriam Toews's 2018 novel of the same name, which she described as an imaginative response to real events—the drugging and rape of women over several years in the Manitoba Colony, a Mennonite community in Bolivia, a case that led to convictions of eight men in a Bolivian court in 2011.

Toews describes it as "an imagined response to real events," the gas-facilitated rapes that took place on the Manitoba Colony, a remote and isolated Mennonite community in Bolivia... In 2011, eight men were convicted in a Bolivian court, each one receiving a lengthy prison sentence.

Novel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_Talking_(novel)

Bookshop.org search: https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=Women%20Talking

FUN FACTS / PRODUCTION TRIVIA

Sarah Polley's editor, Christopher Donaldson, has actually revealed just how last-minute the narrator switch was: the film was shot, scored, and voiced entirely with Ben Whishaw's August as narrator, and it wasn't until it was a risky change, and Polley hadn't yet completed her director's cut when they decided to switch narrators, so it was there in the edit that Hallett's character Autje, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Mariche, became the primary narrator. That meant Kate Hallett had to come back into the studio afterward, since Donaldson and Polley needed Hallett's voiceover, which wasn't in the original cut, so the actor was called to record her lines during the post-production process. [Source]

The scene most people remember as the film's opening — August teaching the boys along the fence — wasn't actually built to open the movie at all in the final cut; the scene where August teaches the young boys walking along the fence was originally meant to open the film, but Donaldson and Polley pushed it back. [Source]

The film's ghostly, near-monochrome look wasn't a digital filter slapped on afterward — cinematographer Luc Montpellier built it out of a real photography reference, since both Polley and Montpellier have mentioned the influence of Magnum photographer Larry Towell, who in the 1990s photographed nearly two dozen Mexican Mennonite communities, and Towell's photography book has been compared to Dorothea Lange's Dust Bowl work. [Source]

That look also came from an unusual lens choice: the crew shot with the large format Panavision DXL2 camera with Red Monstro sensor, equipped with Panavision UltraVista Anamorphic lenses to support an epic scope, which pushed the frame into an unusually wide, almost 70mm-style ratio — Montpellier was initially adamant about shooting in a conventional 2.40:1 ratio, but the camera and lenses package made him rethink this, and he and Polley both fell in love with 2.76:1. [Source]

Despite its rustic, outdoor feel, the barn debate that makes up most of the film wasn't shot on location at all — the most striking decision was to shoot most of the film in a studio, because with that amount of dialogue, the film taking place over 48 hours, and the cast going to dark places, Montpellier needed full control over the environment, since Polley's script called for scenes sometimes over ten pages long to play out at precise moments like sunrise, sunset, or dusk. [Source]

WHAT THEY DID NEXT

Since Sarah Polley wrote and directed Women Talking, her subsequent confirmed work centers on two things. She made a rare return to acting, playing a fictionalized version of herself in a 2025 episode of Seth Rogen's Apple TV+ series The Studio, a role she's said let her vent some directorial frustrations on camera. And she's now writing and directing an adaptation of Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar, with Billie Eilish attached to make her feature acting debut in the lead role, for Focus Features.

We haven't covered The Bell Jar yet — but we probably should.

FAMOUS QUOTES

• "there is a sustained moral seriousness in Polley's work, a willingness to confront pain" — Peter Bradshaw, quoted via IMDb user reviews compiling critic commentary [Source]
• "a powerful act of nonviolent protest" — Peter Debruge, Variety, via Wikipedia [Source]
• "a movie that deliberately hovers between drama and parable" — Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times, via Wikipedia [Source]

The film's broader critical reception was strong: the film received positive reviews from critics, who lauded Polley's screenplay and direction, the performances of the cast, and score, but it grossed just $9 million against a $20 million budget. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90%, based on 296 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10, with critics consensus reading that "While Women Talking sometimes forsakes entertaining drama in favor of simply getting its points across, its message is valuable -- and effectively delivered."

EXTERNAL RECOMMENDATIONS

For anyone who wants to keep pulling on the threads this episode raises, a few places worth going next:

NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, "Women Talking is exactly that — and so much more" — Linda Holmes, Aisha Harris, Barrie Hardymon, and Bedatri D. Choudhury dig into the same choice we here fixate on, arguing that keeping the violence off screen and only showing its aftermath is precisely what makes the film land emotionally rather than relying on graphic content. It's a tight, conversational companion piece that also connects the film to Polley's own essay collection about trauma, Run Towards the Danger.

Seventh Row's Sarah Polley episode (E132) — this one is worth a listen specifically because it disagrees. Where this episode's hosts are largely admiring, the Seventh Row team, joined by a CanLit scholar, argues the film doesn't work on several levels, pointing to the didactic screenplay, flat production design, and how the adaptation handles its source text — a useful counterweight if you want the case against the film's craft.

Dissent Magazine, "Sarah Polley's Act of Imagination" — a sharper critical essay that traces how the film's ending actually works as drama rather than message. It zeroes in on the Mariche subplot, noting how her facade of anger collapses under Ona's question about choice, and how the women come to recognize what they call a "misuse of forgiveness" — which speaks directly to the forgiveness debate this episode spends so much time on.

RELATED ARC EPISODES

New to The Arc? Start with Episode 02: The Fantastic Four if you like Marvel movies — and want to hate us forever and tell your friends how lame we are.

SOUND DESIGN ATTRIBUTION

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