This is the first I have heard of this movie, but it sounds rather compelling.
The Oscar-nominated film “Women Talking” begins in a revelation of horror: The girls and women of a rural Mennonite community are being systematically drugged and raped in the night. The men of the community insist that their attackers are ghosts and demons, and as bizarre as that sounds, the women have accepted it. Then a child catches sight of one of the community’s men as he assaults a woman. Soon an entire group of men is arrested.
Rather than stand by their mothers, wives and daughters, the men of the community leave to bail the perpetrators out, telling the women they have two days to come around to forgiving their attackers for what they have done. As a group, the women must decide how to proceed—“forgive” (i.e., do nothing); stay and fight back; or leave the community forever.
Since it was released in December, “Women Talking” has earned only $4 million domestically; maybe 250,000 Americans have paid to see it. I guess it’s not surprising that people would be more interested in Tom Cruise smiling or blue undersea C.G.I. aliens…I don’t know, farming? But among this year’s Oscar nominees there is no more compelling film than “Women Talking,” nor any that wrestles more honestly with what it means to be a member of a faith community.
“Women Talking” is an exploration of the way that religion can be used to imprison people—and what’s worse, to teach them to imprison themselves. In one of the most startling and yet genuine turns of the film, some of the women begin to wonder whether the men in their community can even be blamed for their actions. They, too, are trapped within the way of thinking they have been taught. These women are right, of course, but facing that fact when the consequences have been so damaging is also brutal. When you start confronting the truth of your reality, there’s just no telling where you’ll end up.
As different as the Mennonite community is from our own, our recent Catholic history, too, is filled with horrifying stories of communities of faith who were taught and groomed over many years to ignore the violence happening in their midst. The startling recent report about Jean Vanier, founder of the international network of residential communities for handicapped adults known as L’Arche, is a case in point. While widely viewed as a saint for his work with these communities, in secret Vanier wasusing L’Arche as a cover for the recreation of what seemed to be a “mystical sex” cult, and ended up sexually exploiting dozens of women over almost 60 years.
‘Women Talking’ is the Oscar nominee every Catholic needs to see | America Magazine
