Power

Rape was something we weren’t to talk about or to know. Sex in general was treated in a surface manner. Basically be a virgin on your wedding night and you will live happily ever after. The nitty gritty of all of this we weren’t supposed to know. We were taught that men were superior to us and long as we dressed modestly and kept a reasonable distance then all would be well. And it wasn’t. I never found the happy balance that led to the magical world of righteous matrimony. I lurched from one end of the spectrum to the other all the while expecting “good” men to be something men aren’t.

The aftermath of rape as a plot has seldom crossed my reading desk. I spend too much time on “men’s books” trying to understand the mystery of male selfishness without facing the whole rape thing head on. I’m sure it is a great body of literature, but I have had other priorities. I know a little about the African Queen who gave the Portuguese hell, so I was excited to see the rebellion of slaves, and the power of a woman. What I was not expecting was the frank, emotional, freeing story of Nanisca and her struggles after being raped. The most powerful person in the room was the one who had been most fucked. The courage of Viola Davis in her portrayal of Nanisca allows us to see both the broken woman and the amazing life she made out of the brokenness. It is the great kindness of the writer to restore her daughter to her, when she was ready. It is another beautifully ugly woman movie. I dearly loved it.