THE MAGDALENE SISTERS

Country: UK/Ireland
Director: Peter Mullan
Lead Actors: Geraldine MeEwan, Anne-Maric Duff, Nora-Jane Noone, Dorothy Duffy, Eileen Walsh, Mary Murray
Running time: 119 min.
BC Rating: 14A(Sexually suggestive scenes, coarse language and nudity)

"A pungent, powerful film that points an accusing finger not at religious beliefs but at flawed human institutions. It also targets social and cultural mores that are almost medieval in their patriarchal bias against girls and women." - David Sterrit / Christian Science Monitor

In a place that defied belief their only hope was each other

THE MAGDALENE SISTERS, which played to positive acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival and also won the top prize at the Venice International Film Festival, is a scathing indictment of religious fundamentalism and a compelling, harrowing tale of the triumph of the human spirit against darkly oppressive forces.

An angry, bitter film that has electrified audiences with its dramatic intensity, it has also angered the Catholic Church, which has condemned it.

Up until 1996, profit-making laundries throughout Ireland operated by the Sisters of the Magdalene Order used young women as slave labour. An estimated 30,000 girls went through this system, sent to Magdalene Asylums for their so-called sexual improprieties.

The film follows the stories of three young women who arrive at the convent on the same day. Margaret (Anne-Made Duff) is raped by a cousin during a wedding celebration and then sent to the convent when she herself is blamed for the incident. After giving birth to an illegitimate son, Rose (Dorothy Duffy) is conned by a manipulative priest into giving up the boy for adoption, while her parents, who refuse even to look at their grandchild, pack her off to the convent.

Bernadette (Nora-Jane Noone), a strong-minded orphan whose good looks attract too much attention from young boys, is branded a temptress and sent to the nuns so as not to corrupt any souls.

Mullan, whose screenplay is based on a Channel 4 documentary about the unfortunate girls who were incarcerated, zeros in with grim power and undeniable intelligence on the sexual repression and religious intolerance of the Order, and in the process has crafted one of the most powerful and unforgettable fihns of the year.

”See The Magdalene Sisters for its own sake; the performances alone are inspirational. But see it too as an example of how powerful a feature film still can be in the hands of an impassioned filmmaker.” - Joe Morgenstern / Wall Street Journal


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