What is power?
The adaptation of a novel written by a former member of the Mennonite religious sect was the basis for this script that has already won awards for its searing and touching meanings. The cast of extraordinary actors, many names you will know, but faces you will recognise. Imagine if you can, that only the men and boys are educated and prepared for the world, while the girls and women are simply left uneducated. What is revealed in a slow drip of words from a script, is the moment by moment realisation of where these women are in their small and limited universe.
All I kept thinking while watching this movie is that perhaps we are not as far along as we think we are in the secular culture. The rash of religious right politics has poisoned our government with its attempts to move it in one direction: theirs. With the recent upending of the constitutional right to privacy and choice, the secular women of America (*depending on where you live) are experiencing much the same things.
What the movie points to is both the search for empowerment among the group as self empowerment. One woman shares how “they made us disbelieve ourselves” says one of the women. Another declares that her anger will send her on a mission to destroy anyone who threatens her and child. What is apparent is that the discussion is filled with rage and anger. There is also a foundation of their religious ideals that they cling to for direction and solace. “Forgiveness” “Love” “Community” are all values of their religion but these values are threatened by the corruption of the men who are in power. This corruption of their positions of power without accountability is the underlying dynamic for the story.
Art/of/style-Magazine 