TIFF #2

…men listening 

The fascinating inklings of staging the setting of a place and time, stripping away any modernity from our sights and holding an aesthetic purposely designed to be as unattractive as possible, Polley likened the creation of the visual language to that of a faded post card from the past. Begins with urgency, the abhorrent truth that lies at the centre of this community has already been unearthed, after years of unexplained harms to the women of the community, often told by their own members that these are deeds of an evil or satan. The finite amount of time they have at their hands due to the withdrawal of all of the men from community for a brief time, they fight with words to determine the outcome of their future. A fable that exists in a timeless realm where the existence of the outside world is limited to a few mentions and a desire to explore what lies beyond this hypocritical community.

The men remain faceless or completely absent. In their absence the women decide to vote for their lives. Perhaps the aspect that touched me the most is how Polley integrates the theme of multigenerational women, accepting what’s come before but changing the course for the next generation of women who’ll have a life their mothers, sisters and grandmothers never did. Acknowledges the events that occurred prior through joltish highly realistic images of the aftermath of rape but maintains its place in a barn where words shriek of rage, frustration and disgust from years of unsaid remembrances within the women that all stems from the common abuse they all faced at the hands of the men. Often turning into screaming fights but Polley always maintains clever and often hilarious motifs that bring levity to the situation for a few minutes before becoming full of rage and fury again. A duel through words erupts giving each women a different reaction on one specific perspective, each character speaks their truth, they’re often guilt-ridden which comes from not allowing there to be a change or find the root of culpability. Stellar work from every single actor and a screenplay with dialogue that touches on so many aspects of human errors all through a single location and a conscious stream of words from a different time, recounting this awful fable to acknowledge how certain generations receive the access to live an independent life of consent due to the sacrifices made my the previous. Stunning work.