Nayla Staffel
It’s three days before Oscar-nomination voting begins, and Sarah Polley knows this can be the hard part. “People refer to this part of releasing a film as soul-destroying,” the director of Women Talking said during a crowded Monday evening reception at the West Village restaurant Hancock St. She understands what they are talking about, having had those experiences too, but she is more grateful for the moments of “connection.” She had experienced that just minutes prior, at a special night of theater organized around and inspired by her film.
Schreck, who called Polley “my idol,” praised the film as both “harrowing” and “hopeful.” Women Talking, based on the Miriam Toews novel, follows women in a remote Mennonite community deciding their future after a series of horrific rapes.
“It’s a really lovely thing to acknowledge inspiration in art this way,” she said. The writers had to turn around their pieces in about two weeks and were working on them nearly up until showtime.
