by Florence Boyle

Accepting her second Oscar in 2018, Frances McDormand encouraged the money men and producers in the audience to talk to women ‘We have stories to tell and projects to finance’.

Women Talking, produced by McDormand, is one of the stories. Time and place are not specified. Miriam Toews, author of the novel on which the film is based, grew up in a Mennonite community and the story is inspired by events that occurred in a remote Mennonite community in Bolivia. The aesthetic and look owe a lot to the that tradition, a mix of American Gothic and 19th century Flemish paintings.

A group of women, representatives of old, young and pre-teens, come together with one trusted man, enlisted to take minutes (the women have never been taught to read and write).

Florence Boyle