Women Talking Writer-Director Sarah Polley Dissects Key Moment – The Hollywood Reporter- Armessa Movie News

Polley calls this scene the turning point of the film, where Buckley’s Mariche acquiesces to leave the colony with the other women in hopes of escaping their violent male counterparts. “It’s the moment where she finally receives an apology from her mother, and from her community, in terms of their complicity in her specific abuse, which is what allows her heart to soften enough that she can take a breath and have a real conversation.”

Humor was a crucial component of Toews’ original text: “I always like to ask an author before I start adapting their work: ‘If there’s one thing that’s most important to you about this adaptation, what is it?’ And [Toews’] response, without pausing, was ‘the laughter,’ ” Polley says. Consequently, her film pulses with surprisingly light moments: “I, personally, have never experienced tragedy without laughing my head off. It’s an impulse to do with survival, but also just to do with being human.”

Mariche is still in a marriage where she’s actively abused daily. “It was really important for her to be able to say, ‘I’m facing judgment for staying in something that you are giving me no choice to leave,’ ” says Polley. “There is a problem, in terms of communities of women judging other people for not leaving violent situations, instead of understanding how much is stacked against them. Obviously, we all want everyone we love to leave a violent situation. But the lack of empathy for the obstacles in the way of that can be alarming.”

Polley calls this the most important moment in the film. “I had a crewmember who I was aware had gone through a lot of abuse as a child,” she recalls. “We shot [the scene], and I looked over at this person, who had had this big reaction, and I said, ‘Would that be good enough for you?’ And they just said, ‘No, it really wouldn’t.’ ” Polley then worked with actress Sheila McCarthy to get Greta’s response right. “I went over to Sheila, and I said, ‘This has to be completely centering [Mariche] and her emotional experience right now. So hold it in. If you feel at the end of this that you’re holding too much in, then say, ‘I’m sorry,’ but only if you have to. At the end, she broke. She said, ‘I’m sorry,’ three times. It was this amazing, communal experience, and it felt like this culmination of many people’s experiences coming into this one moment of writing.”

Polley’s script evolved extensively throughout filmmaking, which meant that lines like “All of us have been infected by a poisoned way of thinking,” “And so you have judged me” and “And that you should not be required to forgive any longer” all ended up on the cutting-room floor. “Turns out, the audience probably gets that,” Polley explains.

This story first appeared in the Feb. 15 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.