‘Women Talking’ Ending, Explained – Women Talking is an 2022 American drama film written and directed by Sarah Polley. It is based on Miriam Toews’s 2018 novel of the same name, which was inspired by actual events that took place in the Manitoba Colony, a small Mennonite settlement in Bolivia. Frances McDormand directs and acts opposite Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey, and Ben Whishaw.
Women Talking debuted at the 49th Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2022, and was distributed by United Artists Releasing to select theatres in the United States on December 23, 2022, and to a larger audience on January 20, 2023. Critics appreciated the film’s score and performances (notably those of Foy, Buckley, and Whishaw), and Polley was lauded for both her screenplay and direction. The National Board of Review and the American Cinema Institute ranked it among the top ten best films of 2022, and the 95th Academy Awards ceremony nominated it for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
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“Women Talking” Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?
Women were discouraged from discussing their sorrow publicly, and when they did, the subject was immediately calm. They were made to believe that Satan and ghosts had physically approached them. Due to apprehension of social isolation, the females had difficulty discussing their experiences. It wasn’t until one night when one of the adolescent girls made physical contact with a man that they were certain. The man identified accomplices in his binge of drugging and raping unconscious women.
On a regular basis, the women awoke to blood-soaked bedding and terrible leg and genital discomfort. The perpetrators of the rape were escorted to the police station, where they would be protected from the victims’ fury. The colony’s men agreed to travel into the city to rescue the attackers. The women were given two days to forgive them upon their return. Without forgiveness, the women would be excommunicated and barred from entering the Kingdom of Heaven.
The women gathered at the barn to discuss the future. Never having learned to read or write, these women cast their first votes. It was either staying and forgiving, fighting, or departing the colony. The bulk of female votes went to the last two candidates. The colony’s fate was determined by two ladies from different families who the other colony women elected.
Notwithstanding the anger of a few, the majority preferred to engage in civil discourse. Others, fearing exclusion from Heaven if they did not follow the men’s instructions, decided to go their own path. After enduring incredible adversity, these women had to discuss and determine their own futures. With the ensuing dispute and conversation in the barn, the audience will be reminded of “12 Angry Men.” As crucial as punishing the guilty is respecting their beliefs and providing a workable solution.
Three generations of women were in the barn, each weighing the advantages and disadvantages of the two possibilities. August was selected to document the proceedings. As soon as August’s mother began to question the colony’s activities, the entire family was an outcast. After completing his undergraduate education, he returned to the colony. Later, he expanded on how the lack of adequately prepared educators in the colony made him the only feasible contender for the role. The two women appeared conscious of the gravity of their conversation. The purpose of the letters was to impress upon the readers the immense potential of women. It was essential to record all they said, whether for future reference or due to the gravity of the situation.
“Women Talking” Ending Explained
Salome’s rage had reached a boiling point, and she would not yield without a struggle. Despite the viciousness of the perpetrators, she did not believe in fleeing in terror. She desired death and devastation for any man who dared to neglect the significance of women’s lives. Numerous people shared her strong opinion, although it was not universally accepted. They were undecided about whether to fight for their rightful position in the colony, as forgiveness appeared impossible. Some of the colony’s women believed that leaving the settlement would prevent them from accessing the Kingdom of Heaven and that God would lose sight of them if they departed.
Despite Mariche’s apprehension, her mother Greta insisted that they must leave. Seeing her horses adapt to different circumstances by altering their running courses while continuing to run inspired her. Instinct instincts prompted the women to question whether or not they were willing to accept the proposition. Salome did not want to foster the habit of running away from trouble in her daughter. While Ona admired Mariche’s forgiveness talks, she couldn’t help but wonder if the forgiveness being preached was genuine.
Ona envisioned a utopian society where both sexes engaged equally in decision-making, in which women and girls had equal access to education, and in which girls were taught about the world and their place in it via a reinterpreted religion inspired by love. As a woman who had been denied everything else, she was grateful that she could still dream despite knowing that her aspirations and objectives were unachievable.
They began to question loudly if they were punishing the wrong men, and the tone of the conversation changed appropriately. They were uncertain as to whether or not they had been misled into trusting the individual they had detained, given that he implicated the real perpetrators. Salome believed that they owed it to themselves and their daughters to secure their protection but not to investigate the actual perpetrators. Nonetheless, the question of guilt persisted. Could they just accuse a small number of men of criminality, or were the circumstances under which these men developed psychopathic tendencies to be taken into account? They reasoned that if the accused men were actually guilty, it was only right to also hold accountable the men who continued to support the rapists.
The group tried to identify the crime’s motive to prevent future occurrences of a similar nature. Ona realized that the attacks directly resulted from their condition, which the colony had sanctioned and encouraged. Adolescents have difficulty transcending binary thinking while adults are appraising the situation. Even though kids were now aware of the truth, they believed the grownups were making the situation worse.
The return of one of the guys to the colony fueled an already heated discussion. Klaas, the aggressive spouse of Mariche, was returning, and the women realized they had to make a hasty decision. The only choice they saw that had no negative implications was to leave. Therefore they chose this course of action. They brought young boys with them, and teaching them to forget what they had learned in the colony was a top concern.
They decided to abandon the colony after consulting August’s map. They focused on what they believed would lead to good and the maintenance of purity. It was preferable to evacuate the colony to prevent its deterioration into killers. It was essential for them to uphold their ideals, which campaigned for peace. They clung on to the notion that they would one day be able to forgive those who had wronged them, as their faith had taught them so. The women decided to leave, so they informed everyone.
Mariche and Autje returned the following day, but they both had facial bruises. As a result of Klaas’s assault, they were forced to tell him the truth. Mariche was convinced that after a night of excessive drinking, her husband would have no recollection of the previous evening’s activities. The women gathered their possessions and formed a line. Ona’s decision to leave the man she passionately loved, August, was painful, but she felt she had to do what was best for her unborn child.
August felt both proud and emotional after all he had witnessed in the preceding several days. Women who were rejected by men channeled their anger into making a fair decision. They were unwavering in their convictions and found a way to behave contrary to their experiences without abandoning them. Fearful of recreating their suffering in the colony, they were prepared to face the unknown.
The 2009 incident in which Memmonite women in their Bolivian colony were raped by males inspired both the book and the film. Men apprehended the perpetrators, shockingly summoned the police, and demanded vengeance. Previously shy women gathered the courage to testify against their abusers in court. The film aimed to convey the women’s strength and resolve on the witness stand.
The film “Women Talking,” like the novel on which it is based, retells a true story. The women’s decision was influenced by their accumulated religious devotion throughout the years. Yet, the conclusion of “Women Chatting” is a bit too far-fetched to be convincing.
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