The Magdalene Sisters

The Magdalene Sisters is 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.

The story takes place mainly in a Magdalene Sisters shelter, where young women accused of sinful behavior - often unfairly or fraudulently - are steered toward the straight-and-narrow path by a regimen of labor, celibacy, and isolation from the outside world. We see the misery they endure in this harshly unforgiving place, and we see the futility of efforts to enforce strict morality on women whose experience of life is so limited that some of them hardly understand the injustice of their own treatment.

Most chilling of all is the realization that such things really happened, that some girls were kept in servitude for their entire lives, and that none of this is buried in the distant past. The story takes place in the 1960s, and the Magdalene system stayed in operation until 1996.

The movie was written and directed by actor Peter Mullan, who was inspired by a British television documentary on the subject. His fictionalized screenplay brings awful realities to vivid life, reminding us that piety without compassion is meaningless.

This film was inspired by Steve Humphries' documentary "Sex in a Cold Climate" which is included on the DVD and which I've posted below. Watch the documentary and then buy The Magdalene Sisters. I cannot say enough about this heart wrenching piece of history. You'll be thanking me well before the film is over.

Director: Peter Mullan

Writer: Peter Mullan

Stars: Eileen Walsh, Dorothy Duffy, Nora-Jane Noone

Geraldine McEwan, Mary Murray, Anne-Marie Duff

Country: Ireland | UK

Language: English | Latin

Release Date: 29 August 2003 (USA)

Filming Locations: Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, UK

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