Thursday 4 April 2024 – 7.30pm @ Killara Centre, Camperdown

CONTENT WARNING: This story discusses sexual assault.

The 2022 film WOMEN TALKING, written and directed by Sarah Polley, is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Canadian writer Miriam Toews, who describes the novel as “an imagined response to real events”. The real events occurred between 2005 and 2009 when over 100 women and girls living in Manitoba Colony, a remote and isolated Mennonite community in Bolivia, woke up to discover that they had been raped in their sleep. The attacks were denied or dismissed by the exclusively male elders of the colony, as the work of ghosts, or Satan, or that the women were lying to get attention. Finally it was revealed that a group of men from the colony were spraying animal anaesthetic to sedate entire households in order to sexually assault the women and girls.

While the men of the colony are away to post bail for the rapists, the women meet in secret to plot their response to the systemic male violence. Whether to stay and do nothing, stay and fight, or leave the colony. The women must grapple with the fundamentals of their faith and their lack of power and freedom within it. How do the women maintain their faith in light of the abuse, and will they be denied entry into heaven if they refuse to forgive their offenders?

The film features an ensemble cast that includes Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, Ben Whishaw, and Frances McDormand, who also served as a producer on the film. 

WOMEN TALKING screens at 7.30pm on Thursday 4 April 2024 in the Killara Centre, Camperdown. USA Rated M 1hr 44min 

$10 entry for guests or $30 for a 3 x film membership subscription. The entry fee includes supper and refreshments after the screening. No bookings required, just arrive before 7.30pm at the Killara Centre, Camperdown.

For more information, contact thursdaypictures@gmail.com