Volume IV Special Issue II February 2024

Name of Author : Sruthi S

Title of the paper : A Saga of the Revolt Against the Institutionalised Heterosexual Matrix: A Critical Analysis of the Character Melvin in the Women Talking

Abstract: Written and directed by Sara Polley, Women Talking is a 2022 drama film that showcases the agony of a group of women in a remote and isolated Manitoba Colony who belong to the Mennonite community in Bolivia. The film adapts from the infamous gas-facilitated serial gangrape case happened during 2005- 2009 where around 160 victims there allegedly raped, the incident that shook the conscience of the World. Garnering a considerable number of awards and nominations, the film contains boundless interpretations predominantly the theological angle, the saga of uprisal, with the undertones of pure conjunction of strength and perseverance. A truthful adaptation of the book by Miriam Toews of the same name, published in 2018. The film is an art of what trauma does to women and children in particular with a strong reference to the sheer audacity shown by a lot to rise above the adverse circumstances with nothing much to their aid other than will power. The film has important ramifications of the solid heterosexual matrix, where the source of the trauma resides. The analysis of the acts, the correctness of the decisions happening within an elevated hayloft, higher enough from the ground where everything happens, make the changes. Strong theological doctrines during the period where homosexuality was considered a sin, Melvin stands as a rebel, holding a mirror against society screaming the transformation to a transman as a silent agitation against the concrete matrix of patriarchy, where woman as a being doesnt exist but her body does. Melvin found the significance through the trauma.

Keywords : Film, Queerness, Gender, Religion, Trauma, Survival

DOI :

Page Number : 183-187