Under a dystopian religious tyranny, most women cannot conceive children. Those young women who can live in a form of sexual slavery to provide children for influential families.Under a dystopian religious tyranny, most women cannot conceive children. Those young women who can live in a form of sexual slavery to provide children for influential families.Under a dystopian religious tyranny, most women cannot conceive children. Those young women who can live in a form of sexual slavery to provide children for influential families.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 1 nomination
Reiner Schöne
- Luke
- (as Rainer Schoene)
Robert D. Raiford
- Dick
- (as Robert Raiford)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhile working on the film, Robert Duvall became so fascinated with evangelism that it inspired him to write The Apostle (1997).
- GoofsWhen Moira ties up Aunt Lydia and escapes the Red Center, it is late at night, but moments later, when she exits, it is clearly daytime.
- SoundtracksWhispering Hope
Written by Septimus Winner as Alice Hawthorne
Featured review
unconvincing dystopian fable
There's nothing subtle about this screen adaptation of Margaret Atwood's cautionary fable, but the premise is nothing if not provocative: in a repressive fundamentalist dictatorship (called Gilead, but ostensibly America in the near future) the few remaining fertile women are forced to bear children, in effect becoming sexual servants to the (male) powers-that-be. Gilead may be colored red, white and blue, but there's more than a passing resemblance to Orwell's Oceana; even the act of conception is reduced to a ritual, with the euphemism 'ceremony' doubling for intercourse. A talented cast does its best with Harold Pinter's typically inscrutable screenplay, but under Volker Schlondorff's dispassionate direction the film never achieves a convincing level of oppression or paranoia. Worse, it lacks a story to match its scenario; the handmaid Offred's redemption is achieved only with the help of another man, which seems to deflate the feminist slant. The final result is nowhere near a successful movie, but never less than a fascinating failure.
helpful•3321
- mjneu59
- Nov 24, 2010
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Die Geschichte der Dienerin
- Filming locations
- James Adams Buchanan House, 1810 Cedar St, Durham, North Carolina, USA(Commander Fred's house)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $4,960,385
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $738,578
- Mar 11, 1990
- Gross worldwide
- $4,960,385
- Runtime1 hour 48 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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