This year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) featured many films mixed with controversy, intrigue, and excitement.
However, there was one which stood above the rest to get people talking.
Women Talking, a film where a group of women discuss how to fight back against the men who have abused them for years, premiered at TIFF on Sept. 13.
The movie – an adaptation of the book of the same name by Miriam Toews – stars actors Rooney Mara and Claire Foy, among others.
While the book itself is set in a Mennonite community, the film does not set the story in any one society.
Sarah Polley, a Canadian actress, writer, and director of the film, shared at the movie premiere that this is because the theme and message of the film is relevant to present society in many ways. She adds the intention is for the audience to not label it as a Mennonite experience alone.
The premiere was followed by a meet-the-cast panel the next day. A group of students from varying fields of study were invited to a brunch and panel discussion with the film’s director, producer, and cast.
The discussion at the panel followed the focus message of the film – patriarchy, its impacts on women in society, and women taking back their power.
Event goers had the chance to ask questions of the film’s cast and crew. Photo by: Ayeshwini Lama.
While its main theme is gendered sexual violence and the power of community, the movie also touches on topics of women in democracy, faith, gender expression and identity, and various trauma responses.
“I think what I was excited about portraying in the film is that there are many different responses to this kind of experience. And ultimately, even though it’s very easy at the moment to judge one over another, they’re all legitimate and valid responses. And they all kind of need to be unpacked with care and ideally in communication with others,” said Polley.
Characters in the film are shown to be strongly willed to change the way their lives have been up to that point, something that may even be considered uncharacteristic of abused women.
When asked what they thought about the film’s portrayal of angry women which is frowned upon in real life, Claire Foy mentioned that sometimes anger is acceptable.
“Female anger is often seen to be a very dangerous thing. Sometimes anger is completely righteous. I believe they should be angry. She’s right to be rageful. I think it’s fair enough. But I think in our society, women are seen to be mothers and angels. And I think when a woman is angry, it’s like something seismic has happened, and then the world’s gone completely wrong,” said Foy. “But these women allow it. And I just don’t think that that happens in our society.”
The audience at the panel were inspired to use the film as academic or teaching material and even just a conversation starter.
Andrea Sunil who is a film student at the Toronto Film School shared that the opportunity to sit with the panel empowered her as a filmmaker and a woman.
Attendees of the Women Talking event. Photo by: Ayeshwini Lama.
“I see these women in positions of power and applying their power in the right way and right direction. It gives me hope. I feel like we are in a more positive light of the film right now.”
Women Talking will be released theatrically Dec. 2.
TIFF spanned 11 days and featured International and Canadian cinema in the heart of Toronto. This year with showings in theatres along King Street, TIFF attracted thousands of people to view films.
