Oscar-nominated writer-director Sarah Polley’s film Women Talking, based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Miriam Toews, follows a group of tight-knit women in an isolated religious colony as they struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of sexual assaults committed by the colony’s men. As a breakout film from the 2022 festival circuit, Women Talking is one of the most anticipated releases of December. And today, Orion debuted a new poster for the movie ahead of tomorrow’s trailer.

Featuring an ensemble cast that includes Oscar nominees Rooney Mara and Jessie Buckley and Oscar winner Frances McDormand, as well as Claire Foy, Judith Ivey, and Ben Wishaw, Women Talking is a drama of harrowing revelations about a cloistered religious world where women struggle to figure out how to respond to the epidemic of abuse newly uncovered within their Mennonite colony. Fearing that any action they take against the men’s violence will jeopardize their entry into heaven, the women gather to discuss how to respond to what is happening in their community while the men are away, narrowing their options down to three: do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. Some of the women are willing to do anything to escape the sexual and physical violence of their domestic lives and insist that “the truth is stronger than the rules.”

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Women Talking Is Sarah Polley’s First Feature Film in a Decade

     Plan B Entertainment

Polley, who first garnered attention as a child actress for her role as Ramona Quimby in Ramona, made her feature film directorial debut in 2006 with Away from Her, for which she won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Director and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Her second film, Take This Waltz, debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011. Although Polley has continued to work on documentaries and miniseries, Women Talking marks her first feature film in almost a decade.

In Women Talking, “Polley showcases her unmatched skills as both a screenwriter and a director,” writes Jane Schoettle for TIFF. “The film is at once ferocious in its critique of patriarchal oppression — a critique that clearly extends to our broader, secular culture — while respectful of the beliefs and traditions in which its characters were raised. Though it is suffused with the pain of trauma, a stubborn sense of wonder and quiet joy in community permeate the film. Women Talking ushers us through a journey of rage, grief, wisdom, and hope through to a triumphant, most gratifying conclusion.”

Check out the new Women Talking poster below:

     United Artists Releasing