- Title: Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley premiere 'timely' 'Women Talking' in London
- Date: 12th October 2022
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (OCTOBER 12, 2022) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF ACTORS JESSIE BUCKLEY AND CLAIRE FOY ARRIVING ON THE RED CARPET AND POSING FOR PHOTOS PHOTOGRAPHERS VARIOUS OF (SCREEN LEFT TO RIGHT) FOY, FILMMAKER SARAH POLLEY, ACTOR BEN WHISHAW AND BUCKLEY POSING FOR PHOTOS
- Embargoed: 26th October 2022 23:26
- Keywords: Ben Whishaw Claire Foy Jessie Buckley London film festival Rooney Mara Sarah Polley Women Talking Women Talking London Film Festival Women Talking film Women Talking movie Women Talking premiere
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: UK
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA001147911102022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Filmmaker Sarah Polley brings a harrowing story of rape and rebuilding to the big screen with "Women Talking", a movie featuring a stellar cast including Frances McDormand, Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, and Ben Whishaw.
Based on a book by Miriam Toews, "Women Talking" tells the story of women members of a cloistered Mennonite community debating how to respond to a series of systematic rapes and attacks perpetuated by men in their colony. Do nothing? Stay and fight? Leave, even if it means losing the only home they have known?
Years out from her most recent film, Polley said she felt an urgency to tell the story.
"Sadly, I think this film would always be timely. I mean, I think there's never been a moment where women haven't been having to fight for basic things or defend basic things that were hard-won. So, yes, this is landing at a very specific moment and certainly the events in Iran, you know, I'm thinking about daily and wondering about and I think this film is in conversation with all of those struggles," Polley, 43, told Reuters at the movie's London Film Festival premiere on Wednesday (October 12).
Making the film was an intense experience for the actors, Foy and Buckley said.
"We felt everything really deeply. We laughed hysterically. We cried hysterically. And I think we all had to be in touch with everything at any one moment. And I think we became, like, less like lots of individuals and more like one big massive entity where we all felt everything sort of in unison and discussed everything," said Foy.
The cast created a nurturing environment for each other, said Polley.
"It felt like being witnessing a sports team at times. I mean, when someone would have a great moment like there'd be huge applause and everyone run and jump and lift them up. And, you know, there was something about it that felt not quite normal in terms of a community of actors, I think was there was a heightened sensibility and awareness and intimacy," she said.
To find release from the content of the film, the cast members said they joked and laughed on the set.
"I would say that there is huge pleasure in having a fart machine on set," said Buckley, adding: "You've got to find the good laughter in the darkest moments. And there was a fart machine on the set and it was really golden."
While the story deals with difficult issues, Polley said she hoped its sense of hope and possibility would resonate with audiences.
"I think just that seed of an idea that what does the world look like that you want to live in? Like, we know what we don't want. We're clear on that, I think. What do we want? What does that look like? And that act of imagination that it takes to think about what the world is that we'd like to build when we figured out how to get rid of this one," she said.
"Women Talking" will be released in the United States on December 2 and globally in early 2023.
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