Lives of women

This hugely enjoyable and resonant movie has had dour reviews from some reviewers – and my brief survey reveals they are male. Perhaps they lack the perspective of a woman viewer who doesn’t need to be told the backstory of the women in the movie; we know it in our bones or have learned about the horrific Magdalene laundries, the long struggle for the vote, the oppression of women by religion, the ‘glass ceiling’, the manipulative undermining, and all the injustices for women in a patriarchal society. It is, apparently, not even respectable for a woman to play the guitar! In addition, the movie is set in the shadow of the recent World War, women’s war work is no longer valued, they often live in basic, dark, cheek-by-jowl housing with shared privies, they are bound by societal rules of propriety, and under the thumb of the male of the house. Something has to give. This, it seems to me, is what this movie is about.

Neatly staged groups of three show the progression of the movie. First the woman police officer with her self-satisfied and patronising colleagues backed up by the architecture of the establishment, then the friendships of the women, and finally, Woman Police Officer Moss (centre) in civvies, takes matters into her own hands (with back-up). The downed tools in the background suggest the men aren’t up to the job, while the three police officers, full of self-importance, are subtly undermined by the hens.