Passes the Bechdel test

Women Talking

Name: Women Talking
Released: 2022

2022. Directed by Sarah Polley, written by Sarah Polley and Miriam Toews.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
14 women characters. 16 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 15 scenes out of 104.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

Do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith.

Released: 27 Jan 2023
Genres: Drama
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 6.9 / 10
Metascore: 77 / 100
Awards: Won 1 Oscar. 65 wins & 164 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Agata 113 lines, woman
Ona 112 lines, woman
Salome 97 lines, woman
August 95 lines, man
Mariche 84 lines, woman
Greta 81 lines, woman
Mejal 47 lines, woman
Autje 43 lines, woman
Neitje 22 lines, woman
Scarface Janz 12 lines, woman

Full cast, 23 people

Rooney Mara as Ona
Claire Foy as Salome
Jessie Buckley as Mariche
Judith Ivey as Agata
Ben Whishaw as August
Sheila McCarthy as Greta
Kate Hallett as Autje
Michelle McLeod as Mejal
Liv McNeil as Neitje
August Winter as Melvin
Frances McDormand as Scarface Janz
Emily Mitchell as Miep
Kira Guloien as Anna
Shayla Brown as Helena
Eli Ham as Klaas
Lochlan Ray Miller as Julius
Vivien Endicott Douglas as Clara
Nathaniel McParland as Aaron
Marcus Craig as Cornelius
Will Bowes as Census Driver
Emily Drake as Dark Haired Woman
Caroline Gillis as Woman on the Path
Shannon Widdis as Girl on Porch (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 104

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 3	0	1
4 to 6	7	1
7 to 9	12	8
10 to 12	0	5
13 to 15	17	1
16 to 18	32	0
19 to 21	83	5
22 to 24	51	2
25 to 27	7	0
28 to 30	5	0
31 to 33	5	1
34 to 36	13	8
37 to 39	0	0
40 to 42	0	0
43 to 45	43	3
46 to 48	3	0
49 to 51	37	9
52 to 54	52	3
55 to 57	13	0
58 to 60	63	4
61 to 63	3	4
64 to 66	24	3
67 to 69	13	1
70 to 72	12	0
73 to 75	0	0
76 to 78	49	16
79 to 81	0	0
82 to 84	52	8
85 to 87	2	1
88 to 90	3	0
91 to 93	4	0
94 to 96	4	0
97 to 99	22	17
100 to 102	0	0
103 to 104	0	0

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

NEITJE: “Do nothing.” SALOME: “Stay and fight.” SALOME/NEITJE: “Leave.”

AGATA: But Greta, we are not animals. GRETA: We have been preyed upon like animals. Maybe we should respond like animals. ONA: Do you mean run away? SALOME: Or kill our attackers?

MARICHE: Write it down. Under pros. Salome has had a brilliant idea. MARICHE: “If we stay, we won’t have to leave.” NEITJE: We won’t have to pack. MEJAL: We won’t have to figure out where we’re going or experience the uncertainty of not knowing where we are going. We don’t have a map.

ONA: But if, in all your life, you truly felt that it didn’t matter what you thought, how would that make you feel? ONA: When we have liberated ourselves, we will have to ask ourselves who we are. SALOME: Will we be done by suppertime? I have to give little Miep her antibiotics. GRETA: Where did you get antibiotics?

AUTJE: But- MEJAL: But what? AUTJE: She doesn’t speak anymore. MEJAL: She speaks to the children. I think they call her Melvin.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 86 are women's.

631 lines from women, 101 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

14 women and 6 men in the cast. 16 women and 3 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 3 of 749. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 9 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 86% of the words (8,011), men 14% (1,262).

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Run the other way, for men, the film scores 1 out of 3.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

7 of the 12 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 51% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Sarah Polley (woman)
Written by: Sarah Polley (woman)
From the novel by: Miriam Toews (woman)
Produced by: Jeremy Kleiner (man), Dede Gardner (woman), Frances McDormand (woman)
Shot by: Luc Montpellier (man)
Edited by: Christopher Donaldson (man), Roslyn Kalloo (woman)
Music by: Hildur Guðnadóttir (woman)
Production design by: Peter Cosco (man)
Costumes by: Quita Alfred (gender not listed)