‘Women Talking’ Based on Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel of the same name and inspired by true events, is a 2010 drama film written and directed by Sarah Polley that revolves around eight women from an isolated religious community. These women try to come to terms with the reality of the women’s faith in their colony when they discover that men have been drugging and raping the women of the community at night for several years.
Now women have to make a choice – let the situation remain unchanged and do nothing, raise their voice and fight against the injustice, or simply stand up and walk away to save themselves.
The film sheds light on the disturbing truth about the isolated Mennonite colony, raising awareness of the subject among the general public. Furthermore, given the backdrops of fields and barns, viewers will probably wonder where “Women Talking” was actually filmed.
Where Was Women Talking Movie Filmed?
“Women Talking” was filmed completely in Ontario, particularly the Greater Toronto Area. The crew’s original plan was to shoot the drama in 2020, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was pushed back a year or so.
After delays, principal photography finally got underway in July 2021 under strict Covid -19 protocols and ended in September of that year.
Ontario
All of the pivotal sequences for ‘Women Talking’ took place around the Greater Toronto Area, a region that includes the city of Toronto and several other regional municipalities, including Halton, Peel, Durham, and York.
Most of the drama takes place inside a hayloft, which was actually built by production designer Peter Cosco in a massive studio space in Toronto with enough space and height to incorporate the required lighting as well as a blue screen.
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In addition, the production team wanted to be able to control the environment and freeze the time of the location according to their requirements.
As for the outdoor shots of the farm, they were shot on an actual farm just about an hour outside of Toronto.
The farmer on the farm agreed to change his crop from corn to soybeans to make it easier to shoot because soybean crops grow lower to the ground compared to corn. Cosco and the rest of the team also used the farm to record some key scenes.
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However, they also built other structures around the barn and farm, such as a schoolhouse, a washhouse with a windmill, and a water tower that served as the location where an important scene between Ona and Augustus was Women Talking filmed.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in December 2022, Rooney Mara (She) opens up about her experience filming on a real farm. She said: “Being on a real farm was amazing. It was beautiful and it was helpful to be on that farm and imagine, ‘Okay, you’ve spent your whole life here, in nature.'”
