Trauma, Reprisal, and Forgiveness

"It's doomsday and a call to prayer;
it's both."
Women Talking (2022)

Points for Reflection

Sarah Polley's Women Talking (2022)

1. The words “What follows is an act of female imagination,” which appear across the screen, are a creative redeployment of what accusation directed at the women?
2. To what end does Sarah Polley employ bird’s-eye shots, pans, and high angles throughout the film?
3. Which is more saturated with color, exterior or interior shots?  Why?
4. Autje tells us that they caught a boy in their rooms at night, and saw his face, yet the first four times teenage boys appear in the film, we can’t see their faces.  Why might the director have made this impossible for us, repeatedly?
5. In the film’s opening minutes, do we see more of the men than we do of the boys?
6. Why do the elders take the attackers to the city police?
7. August narrates this tale in the novel, but Autje does so in the film.  Polley, in other words, added much of the content narrated by Autje.  What kind of commentary do the teenager’s words provide on the story’s action?  How old does she sound as she tells this story, both in the timbre of her voice and the language she uses?
8. Do the other women agree with “Scarface” Janz’s position on forgiveness?
9. The women list possible actions they can take in the next two days.  Can you think of others they don't list?
10. Why do so few of the colony’s many women participate in the deliberations about what to do?
11. In the gospels (Mt. 9:6, Mk. 2:10), Jesus washes his disciples’ feet to model for them the importance of humility—and to anticipate the salvific impact of his imminent crucifixion.  Why do the women wash one another’s feet before beginning their long discussion?
12. Why do the women give themselves only 24 hrs to reach a decision, despite the fact that the men gave them 48 hrs?
13. why does “Scarface” Janz not remain for the women’s long conversation?
14. In the novel, the characters often use low German words and phrases that August finds difficult to translate.  In the film, Polley instead focuses the script on particular words the characters debate, including the distinction between “fleeing” and “leaving.”  Why does this particular distinction matter so much to Salome?
15. Does Neitje’s drawing serve a practical, healthy purpose?  Does it appear to provide a way to engage with reality, or a way to avoid it?
16. Do any clues suggest how much time has elapsed since the end of the film and the time when Autje narrates the events that make up the film’s action?
17. Where does Mejal echo the opinions of her cousin, Salome, and where differ?
18. What array of consequences does Salome attach to rape?
19. Salome and Agata note that the men of the colony value power.  Does the power desired by the women differ from that exercised by the men?
20. Why does Mariche define her opinion about what to do as the only “sane” option?
21. When Ona suggests parameters for a new and improved colony, Mariche responds that Ona’s a dreamer and has no grasp on reality.  Is Mariche’s assessment valid, or do Ona’s ideas seem attainable?
22. When Greta asks what the women will do if the men don’t accept their demands, Ona has a strident response ready, but laughs after declaring it.  Given what you know of her character, do you think she was serious?
23. Does Ona believe that evil actually exists?
24. Do the women want power similar to that wielded by the men of the colony?
25. Agata claims that in her many years she’s not asked a man to do anything.  Does this seem actually possible, in a community of both sexes?
26. During their outbreak of laughter, Agata wonders whether August thinks them “lunatics.”  How might lunacy be defined in such a community?  Does the following observation about madness, written by poet Emily Dickinson, ring true in this colony?  “Much Madness is divinest Sense - / To a discerning Eye - / Much Sense - the starkest Madness - / ’Tis the Majority / In this, as all, prevail - / Assent - and you are sane - / Demur - you’re straightway dangerous - / And handled with a Chain –”
27. When August says that it “doesn’t matter” what he thinks, that he’s just there to take the minutes of the meeting, Ona leans in on this bit of exaggeration and reveals what about the past experience of the women in the colony and the challenge awaiting them in the future?
28. Immediately after explaining how Salome walked for a day and half to a mobile clinic to get Miep antibiotics, with Miep on her back, Agata begins reciting, repeatedly, a paraphrase of Exodus 34:6-7: “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in loving kindness and forgiveness.” Are the revelation about Salome and the scripture Agata recites in any way related to one another?
29. How do the other women respond to Agata’s cyclical rehearsal?
30. During the break from discussion, Mejal does what which she knows Autje dislikes?  Does the film provide any explanation for why Mejal might engage in this behavior?
31. In adopting the novel for film, Sarah Polley alters the origins of Nettie’s gender identity.  In Miriam Toews’ fiction, Nettie’s gender dysphoria appears to result from being sexually assaulted.  We’re told “Mariche Loewen believes that Nettie may have changed her name to Melvin. She believes Nettie has done this because she no longer wants to be a woman” (46).  In the film, we’re told that Nettie/Melvin never did feel like a woman.  How does this change to the story impact our understanding of gender roles and constructions of gender in this community?
32. What secret does Nettie/Melvin speak into the wind, at whom is it directed, and to what decision does this secret lead?
33. Does August’s and Autje’s encounter at the well outdoors underscore, or undercut, the value of August’s university education?
34. At what point do we learn about the year in which this film is set?  Were you surprised?
35. The first time we see a male character other than August for longer than an instant, the young boy interacts with Miep and does what? What does this suggest about Aaron’s character?
36. What does the census taker represent to the colonists, and what do those who don’t ignore him take away from their encounter?
37. The one secular song to appear in the film appears more than once.  Why might Polley have chosen this particular piece of music?
38. How do the women react to Autje’s attempt at levity?
39. How does Mariche react when she learns of Klaas’s return?
40. Why does Miep seek refuge in her mother’s arms?
41. How do the other women respond to Miep’s presence?
42. At what point does Polley finally allow us to finally see a group of active boys?  What age are these boys, and do they appear threatening?
43. What does Ona feel for August?
44. Do you agree with Ona’s indirect suggestion that the need for love lies at the root of the violence they’ve suffered?
45. Why might Ona stop August from finishing what he begins to say near the water pump, and do you agree with her reasoning?
46. As Neitje draws a picture of what might happen to the women later, she includes a boy, and appears to be leaving what feature of his body till last?
47. How do disabled boys figure into the women’s plans?
48. Does anything in particular catalyze Mejal’s debilitating attack/episode?
49. What does the camera do during Mejal’s episode?
50. Does Mariche’s comment on Mejal’s attack, once it begins to pass, recall any of the problems Susan Wendell identifies with society’s response to chronic illnesses?
51. Does Greta encourage the finger-pointing into which the women sometimes slide, or disrupt it?
52. When Mariche and Greta question how they will be forgiven if they leave the community, how does Salome respond?
53. After Agata recommends thinking about what is good, and recites Philippians 4:8, the women talk about “goodness” and reach what conclusions?  Do their perspectives converge or diverge?
54. Does the women’s conversation about the nature of forgiveness identify any necessary parameters for forgiveness to actually occur?
55. Why does Nettie/Melvin not respond when asked to explain what’s wrong with Julius?
56. For what does Greta ask forgiveness, and how does Mariche respond?
57. Who finally articulates the women’s joint decision for them, succinctly?
58. When asked about the potential for boys 13-14 years old to change, to relearn what they assume to be true about gender roles, how does August—their teacher—respond?
59. What difficult thing does Agata ask of August before they dismiss for the evening?
60. In the novel, Klaas returns and actually occupies center stage for awhile, conversing with a number of the women.  In the film we barely see him.  Why might Polley have made this change?
61. If you had to provide dialogue for the implied exchange between Salome and her son, Aaron--that evening when everyone returns home--what words might it contain?
62. Autje observes, while narrating this story, that “we like to put frames around things, even when they are spilling out the edges” (1:19:12).  Does this film, as a whole, neatly contain its difficult content, or allow the issues presented to spill over the edges?
63. Who is the last character to articulate aloud the three things the women want, and why does it matter that it’s she who says this?
64. What determines the closing actions of Anna and Helena, the daughters of Scarface Janz?
65. Can we determine Ona’s true feelings for August?
66. do Neitje’s collected drawings capture the past, the present, or the future?
67. Aaron’s final appearance in the film occurs while August is making a list of the things they all appreciate about their community: Aaron during Salome’s voiceover of the word “love.”  What is happening at this moment, to Aaron, and where does he end up?  Should this concern us?
68. What does August give to Salome before she departs?
69. Does the list drawn up by August have an intended destination?
70. Autje told us in the opening that the story ends before the intended audience, Ona’s child, was born. Does this make the conclusion either more or less hopeful?
71. In the film’s first half, the narrator (Autje) tells us that “It was all waiting to happen before it happened. You could look back and follow the breadcrumbs along the path that led to violence. We could see that it had been everywhere.”  To what kinds of things might this cryptic comment refer? Has the film intimated an answer?

Women Talking (2022)
screenshot

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu