SOLSC March 19: Yet Another Movie

            One of the many groups I belong to is a movie discussion group. We all agree on a movie, see it on our own time, then meet once a month to discuss it. The people in the group are a very mixed bag: a retired philosophy profession, a retired social worker, a retired art history professor, a former theater journalist, the French wife of a political science professor. Some are so sure of their own opinions that it’s hard to have a discussion with them.

            Today we met via Zoom to discuss Women Talking. I was the one who suggested this film, and I really liked it. The basic story is based on a novel drawn from true events: women in a fundamentalist religious community in Bolivia are raped by men in the community. When the men are caught and arrested, the women must decide what to do when the men are bailed out and return to the community: do nothing, stay and fight against these men, or leave. Representatives of three families meet in a hayloft and over the course of a day discuss and argue over what to do. Because women in this community are never taught to read or write, they ask the man who teaches the boys to take the minutes of their discussion, which offers one possible male figure who sees the women as whole human beings.

            One family (led by the character played by Frances McDormand) leaves the discussion right away because they want to “do nothing,” forgive the men and stay without any criticism of what the men have done. The remaining women have varying personalities and varying thoughts about what to do. One woman is so angry she is afraid that if she stays she will murder one of the men. One woman proposes that they stay and start a new religion created by women and focused on love; the angry woman can’t take her seriously because she’s too idealistic.

            The film has a voiceover narrator who is one of the children listening in on the discussion and sometimes taking part. In her voiceover she points out how the women never talked about their bodies; with no language to describe what’s happened to them, there can be only silence, which explains why the attacks haven’t been revealed before.

            Over the course of the day, the women offer different opinions; argue with each other, sometimes heatedly; change their minds; use their faith to support varying points of view. I am not a person of faith, and this film reinforced my impression that people can make religious language — prayers, quotes from the Bible, as here — mean whatever they want it to mean. The women have been trained to believe that the rules of the community are God-given. The women now feel that their faith is stronger than the rules.

            The film led to some heated discussion among our group as well. One woman considered the religious community a “cult,” which us to an extended conversation about the meaning of “cult” and how widely the term could be extended. Obviously, there’s not a lot of action in this film, but I will say that watching women talk and think can be action itself, whether or not it leads to more conventional action.

-------------------------------------

I’m participating in the 16th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two Writing Teachers. This is day 19 of the 31-day challenge.  It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to slice about.  Join in!